H  PRINCETON.     N.     J.  "> 


PRINCETON,    N.    J. 


Shelf. 


BR  45  .B63  1880 
Howson,  J.  S.  1816-1885 

The  evidential  value  of 

Acts  of  the  Apostles 


the 


C^e  iBo^lcn  lectwcjs  isso 

THE 

EVIDENTIAL  VALUE 

OF    THE 

Acts  of  the  Apostles 

by  THE 

VERY  REV.  J.  S.HlOWSON,  D.D. 


DEAN  OF  CHESTER,  ENGLAND 


Delivered  in  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  Phila- 
delphia, in  April,  1880 


NEW  YORK 
E.   P.   DUTTON  AND   COMPANY 

713  Broadway 
1880 


THEOLOGICAL^ 

THE  JOHN   BOHLEN   LECTURESHIP. 


John  Bohlen,  who  died  in  this  city  on  the  26th 
day  of  April,  1874,  bequeathed  to  trustees  a  fund  of 
One  Hundred  Thousand  Dollars,  to  be  distributed 
to  religious  and  charitable  objects  in  accordance  with 
the  well-known  wishes  of  the  testator. 

By  a  deed  of  trust,  executed  June  2,  1875,  the 
trustees  under  the  will  of  Mr.  Bohlen  transferred  and 
paid  over  to  ' '  The  Rector,  Church  Wardens,  and  Ves- 
trymen of  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  Phila- 
delphia," in  trust,  a  sum  of  money  for  certain  desig- 
nated purposes,  out  of  which  fund  the  sum  of  Ten 
Thousand  Dollars  was  set  apart  for  the  endowment 
of  The  John  Bohlen  Lectureship,  upon  the  fol- 
lowing terms  and  conditions: — 

The  money  shall  be  invested  in  good  substantial  and  safe 
securities,  and  held  in  trust  for  a  fund  to  be  called  The  John 
Bohlen  Lectureship,  and  the  income  shall  be  applied  annually 
to  the  payment  of  a  qualified  person,  whether  clergyman  or 
layman,  for  the  delivery  and  publication  of  at  least  one  hundred 
copies  of  two  or  more  lecture  sermons.  These  Lectures  shall 
be  delivered  at  such  time  and  place,  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia, 
as  the  persons  nominated  to  appoint  the  lecturer  shall  from  time 
to   time   determine,    giving    at    least   six    months   notice    to   the 


The   Bohlcn   LecturcsJiip. 


person  appointed  to  deliver  the  same,  when  the  same  may  con- 
veniently be  done,  and  in  no  case  selecting  the  same  person 
as  lecturer  a  second  time  within  a  period  of  five  years.  The 
payment  shall  lxj  made  to  said  lecturer,  after  the  lectures  have 
been  printed  and  received  by  the  trustees,  of  all  the  income  for 
the  year  derived  from  said  fund,  after  defraying  the  expense  of 
printing  the  lectures  and  the  other  incidental  expenses  attending 
the  same. 

The  subject  of  such  lectures  shall  be  such  as  is  within  the 
terms  set  forth  in  the  will  of  the  Rev.  John  Bampton,  for 
the  delivery  of  what  are  known  as  the  "Bampton  Lectures," 
at  Oxford,  or  any  other  subject  distinctively  connected  with 
or  relating  to  the  Christian  Religion. 

The  lecturer  shall  be  appointed  annually  in  the  month  of 
May,  or  as  soon  thereafter  as  can  conveniently  be  done,  by  the 
persons,  who  for  the  time  being,  shall  hold  the  offices  of  Bishop 
of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  of  the  Diocese  in  which  is 
the  Church  of  the  Holy  Trinity;  the  Rector  of  said  Church;  the 
Professor  of  Biblical  Learning,  the  Professor  of  Systematic  Di- 
vinity, and  the  Professor  of  Ecclesiastical  History,  in  the  Divinity 
School  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  Philadelphia. 

In  case  either  of  said  offices  are  vacant  the  others  may 
nominate  the  lecturer. 


Under  this  trust  the  Very  Rev.  J.  S.  Howsox,  D.D., 
Dean  of  Chester  Cathedral,  England,  was  appointed  to 
deliver  the  lectures  for  the  year  1880. 


Philadelphia,  Easter-tide,  1880. 


CONTENTS 


LECTURE   I. 

PAGE 

General  Characteristics  of  the  Book 7 

LECTURE   II. 

The  Relation  of  this  Book  to  the  Gospel  History    ...       49 

LECTURE   III. 

The  Book  of  the  Acts  in  Connection  with  the  Apostolic 

Epistles 97 

LECTURE   IV. 
The  Usefulness  of  the  Book  for  Instruction  and  Edification  .     135 


LECTURE   I. 

General  Characteristics  of  the  Book. 


\THEGLC 

THE  EVIDENTIAL  VALUE  OF  THE 
ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


LECTURE   I. 

GENERAL   CHARACTERISTICS  OF  THE  BOOK. 

nr^HE  invitation  which  has  brought  me  across 
the  Ocean,  to  associate  myself  once  more 
with  religious  thought  in  America,  was  very- 
welcome  when  I  received  it.  After  a  little 
hesitation,  chiefly  connected  with  a  sense  of 
my  inadequacy  for  the  task  proposed  to  me, 
I  gladly  and  thankfully  consented  to  come.  I 
am  very  conscious  indeed  that  I  cannot  ri- 
val, either  in  depth  or  in  breadth  of  thought, 
the  three  who  have  preceded  me  in  this  lec- 
tureship :  and,  instead  of  precisely  following 
their  steps,  I  think  I  shall  take  a  wiser  esti- 
mate of  my  own  ability,  and  shall  show  a 
truer  respect  to  my  audience  and  the  trustees, 
if  I  only  attempt  a  superficial  treatment  of 
things  familiar. 
The  ground  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  is 


io  The  Evidential  Value 

that  part  of  the  large  and  varied  field  of  the 
Bible  which  my  footsteps  have  most  frequent- 
ly trod.  There  are  indications  too  of  a  sense 
in  the  Church  at  large  that  this  book  has 
hardly  received  all  the  attention  it  deserves. 
Chrysostom  complained  that  in  his  day  it  was 
too  much  neglected.  In  our  own  day  it  would 
not  be  unreasonable  if  a  similar  complaint  were 
made.  Among  the  recent  indications  of  an  in- 
creasing interest  in  the  book  I  class  the  com- 
mentaries of  two  authors  of  your  own,  Alex- 
ander and  Hackett,  one  of  whom  I  had  the 
honor  of  knowing  personally,  while  the  other 
I  have  learnt  to  respect  through  some  ac- 
quaintance with  his  writings.  There  are  va- 
rious circumstances,  too,  which  appear  to  show 
that  this  book  supplies  teaching  peculiarly  use- 
ful in  our  present  state  of  thought.  Moreover 
it  must,  in  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  be  es- 
sentially bound  up  with  the  historical  basis 
of  Christianity.  And  it  has  been  assailed  in 
our  time,  if  with  some  degree  of  perverseness, 
yet  with  great  ingenuity;  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  it  has   received   new  confirmatory  illus- 


of  the  A  cts  of  the  Apostles.  1 1 

trations  of  high  value  during  the  last  fifty 
years.  For  all  these  reasons  the  book  seems 
to  press  for  itself  a  claim  on  our  attention, 
which  previously  was  not  felt  to  be  so  urgent. 
Thus  I  propose  for  our  subject  the  eviden- 
tial value,  or,  to  state  the  same  thing  in  a 
more  German  fashion,  the  apologetic  worth  of 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  I  ask  you  to  join 
me  in  examining  this  book,  with  the  view  of 
seeing  how,  in  itself  and  in  its  relation  to  oth- 
er things,  it  justifies  its  sacred  position;  how  it 
comes  to  us  with  a  divine  recommendation  on 
its  face;  how  it  stands  a  close  scrutiny  with- 
out being  harmed;  how  it  holds  out  its  hands 
and  amicably  clasps,  on  the  one  side,  the 
Gospel  history,  and  on  the  other  side  the 
writings  of  the  Apostles.  These  two  rela- 
tions of  this  book  with  contiguous  parts  of 
the  New  Testament,  on  either  hand,  will 
form  the  subjects  of  the  second  and  third 
lectures.  The  fourth  will  deal  with  the  prac- 
tical benefit,  as  to  instruction  and  edification, 
which  is  to  be  derived  from  this  part  of  Holy 
Scripture.     The    present    introductory    lecture 


12  The  Evidential  Value 

may  fitly  have  regard  for  the  most  part  to 
some  of  its  general  characteristics,  some  of 
those  features  of  the  book,  which  win  our 
confidence,  simply  as  we  look  upon  them. 

The  best  way  to  estimate  the  value  of  a 
treasure  is  to  inquire  what  our  position  would 
be  if  we  ceased  to  possess  it.  A  good  ques- 
tion to  ask  ourselves,  when  we  are  reading 
some  particular  book  of  the  Scriptures  is  this: 
What  should  we  lose,  and  what  would  the 
Church  lose,  if  this  particular  book  of  the 
Bible  which  I  am  reading  were  wanting  ? 
Suppose,  for  the  sake  of  illustration,  before 
we  proceed  further,  that  we  apply  this  test  to 
that  earlier  writing  of  St.  Luke,  the  Gospel 
which  bears  his  name.  What  would  be  our  loss, 
if  this  third  Gospel  were  to  become  a  blank,  if 
mankind  had  never  seen  it,  or  if  mankind  were 
absolutely  to  forget  that  it  ever  existed  ? 

For  a  ready  answer  to  this  question,  our 
thoughts  rush  at  once  to  the  special  con- 
tents of  this  Gospel.  But  before  giving  this 
answer  in  detail,  let  us  pause  for  a  moment 
(it   is   not   irrelevant  to  our   subject)  to  see  if 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  13 

there  is  not  another  part  of  the  answer  which 
our  hearts  suggest  to  us  with  a  power  quite 
as  great  as  any  conviction  that  comes  through 
the  intellect.  There  are  two  ways  of  study- 
ing the  biographies  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour. 
We  may  either  combine  them,  so  as  to  ob- 
tain a  complete  picture  of  the  character  and 
influence  and  power  of  That  Sacred  Life:  and 
this  is  the  common  way  in  which  the  im- 
pression of  Christ  is  made  upon  the  world; 
or  we  may  separate  the  four  evangelists,  so 
as  to  mark  how  they  differ  from  one  another: 
and  it  is  this  kind  of  study  and  observation 
to  which  the  question  just  asked  invites  us. 
But  before  we  turn  to  that  separate  analysis, 
are  we  not  conscious  of  what  we  owe  to  St. 
Luke,  even  if  we  are  contemplating  the  general 
result  of  the  combined  and  complete  picture  ? 
In  a  great  and  successful  portrait  there  are 
many  varied  touches  which  make  it  what  it 
is,  and  which  are  essential  to  the  expression 
of  the  whole.  Now  in  St.  Luke  there  is  a 
certain  tenderness  of  tone,  a  certain  charm 
of  delicate  coloring,  a  cheerful  atmosphere,  a 


14  The  Evidential  Value 

bright  encouragement,  a  human  light,  as  it 
were,  on  those  Divine  Features,  without  which 
the  picture  would  not  be  what  it  is.  It  would 
be  easy  to  analyze  this  and  to  explain  it,  if 
this  were  our  point  for  the  moment;  and  I 
just  name,  in  explanation,  two  special  char- 
acteristics of  this  Gospel  by  the  way.  These 
are  the  sympathetic  mention  of  widows  and 
the  honorable  mention  of  Samaritans  in  this 
book.  My  wish,  however,  at  this  point  is  to 
invite  attention  to  the  fact  that  we  cannot 
rightly  estimate  the  value  of  St.  Luke's  Gospel 
without  considering  how  his  work  blends  with 
the  other  three.  If  we  had  these  three  alone 
the  world  would  not  simply  be  the  poorer,  but 
it  would  be  liable  to  that  kind  of  error  which 
arises  from  lack  of  completeness.  Thus  much 
may  fairly  be  said,  evidentially,  on  the  general 
impression  derived  from  St.  Luke's  Gospel,  ir- 
respective of  its  special  contents. 

And  now,  if  we  are  to  give  the  answer 
which  is  derived  from  a  consideration  of  the 
contents  of  this  Gospel,  we  are  at  no  loss, 
and    a    very    few    words    will     suffice.      It    is 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  15 

not  possible  here  to  do  more  than  to  se- 
lect some  specimens.  In  St.  Luke,  at  the 
beginning,  we  have  those  hymns  of  the  New 
Testament,  connected  with  the  Nativity  of  our 
Lord,  which  make  every  English  Christmas 
joyous;  and  an  English  Christmas  is  part  of 
the  inheritance  of  America.  In  St.  Luke,  at 
the  end,  we  have  the  story  of  that  journey  to 
Emmaus,  which  Cowper,  perhaps  less  frequent- 
ly read  now,  both  in  America  and  in  England, 
than  he  ought  to  be,  has  brought,  in  his 
charming  manner,  into  most  practical  con- 
nection with  our  home-life.  From  St.  Luke 
only  have  we  those  encouragements  to  prayer, 
which  are  supplied  in  the  Parables  of  the 
Midnight  Traveller  and  the  Unjust  Judge. 
In  St.  Luke  only  have  we  the  lessons  of  deep 
humility,  and  of  mercy  to  the  penitent,  in  the 
Parables  of  the  Pharisee  and  Publican  and  of 
the  Prodigal  Son.  Luke  only  tells  us  of  the 
welcome  given  to  the  converted  malefactor, 
who  was  crucified  by  the  side  of  Christ.  This 
is  the  Gospel  of  large  toleration,  of  tender  sym- 
pathy, of  cheerful  hope,  of  joyous   thanksgiv- 


1 6  The  Evidential  Value 

ing.  Good  reason  indeed  we  have,  through- 
out the  ages,  to  be  grateful  to  him,  who 
under  God,  from  his  own  point  of  view, 
wrote  these  things  "in  order"  to  the  "most 
excellent  Theophilus,"  that  we  too  in  distant 
lands,  might  know  "the  certainty  of  those 
things,  in  which  we  have  been  instructed." 

And  if  from  "the  former  treatise"  we  turn 
to  the  second  and  ask  ourselves  —  following 
the  same  method  of  thought — what  is  the 
special  value  to  us  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apos- 
tles,—  if  we  ask  ourselves,  what  we  should 
lose,  and  what  our  Christianity  would  lose, 
supposing  this  book  to  be  obliterated  from 
our  Bibles,  the  mere  proposing  of  the  ques- 
tion makes  us  almost  start  at  the  contem- 
plation of  the  magnitude  of  the  treasure  which 
we  here  possess.  I  have  spoken  above  of  its 
connection  with  the  Gospels  on  one  side  and 
with  the  Epistles  on  the  other.  What  if  this 
book  were  not  here  ?  What  a  chasm  would 
then  yawn,  to  bewilder  and  alarm  us,  be- 
tween these  two  very  diverse  parts  of  the 
New    Testament  !     The    Gospels    on    the    one 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  iy 

side,  and  the  Epistles  on  the  other,  and 
nothing  between — what  a  vacant  space  to  be 
peopled  with  all  manner  of  fancies  and  ap- 
paritions !  what  a  difficulty  for  even  discreet 
minds  to  establish  the  true  connection  be- 
tween the  writings  of  St.  Paul  and  the  records 
of  the  Evangelists  !  Even  with  this  solid  con- 
nection established,  and  with  all  the  sober  col- 
oring which  rests  upon  it,  we  have  seen  what 
wild  speculation  can  do  to  build  up  theories 
and  to  suggest  inconsistencies.  But,  hav- 
ing this  book  for  a  perpetual  possession,  the 
Church  has  all  that  it  really  needs,  as  re- 
gards this  subject,  if  not  for  full  satisfaction, 
yet  for  full  benefit.  The  mere  fact  that  the 
want  is  supplied,  that  we  possess  this  treasure, 
seems  to  me  a  proof  that  it  is  Divinely  given. 
"  Every  good  and  perfect  gift  comes  from 
above,  from  the  Father  of  lights,  with  whom 
is  no  variableness,  neither  shadow  of  turning." 
Though  I  am  writing  evidentially,  I  am  ad- 
dressing Christians;  and  from  them  this  argu- 
ment will  meet  an  immediate  response. 

And  what  if  the  contents,  the  arrangement, 


1 8  The  Evidential  Value 

the  limitations,  of  this  book  are  somewhat  dif- 
ferent from  what  we  should  a  priori  have  ex- 
pected ?  This  is  our  state  of  mind  in  regard 
to  the  whole  of  the  Bible.  And  indeed  of  all 
God's  gifts  it  is  true  that  they  are  different 
from  what  we  might  have  anticipated.  We 
might  perhaps,  following  our  impulsive  rea- 
soning, have  looked  in  this  great  intermediate 
treatise  for  something  more  systematic  in  the 
definitions  of  Doctrine  and  in  rules  of  Disci- 
pline, and  considerably  less  in  the  form  of 
mere  personal  incident.  As  regards  its  re- 
markably biographical  character,  this  it  has  in 
common  with  the  rest  of  the  Bible ;  and  so 
far  there  is  an  argument  in  its  favor  derived 
from  consistency.  But,  speaking  generally, 
there  are,  it  is  true,  many  things  in  the  Acts 
of  the  Apostles  different  from  what  we  should 
have  anticipated.  For  instance,  we  might  wish 
that  we  had  a  symmetrical  account  of  each  of 
the  twelve  Apostles,  after  the  manner  of  the 
fabled  origin  of  the  sentences  of  the  Apostles' 
Creed.  We  may  be  disappointed  that  we  learn 
nothing   of   that    diffused    work   of  St.    Peter, 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  19 

which  produced  in  the  East  effects  co-ordinate 
with  and  correlative  to  the  results  of  St.  Paul's 
preaching  in  the  West.  And  when,  leaving 
the  former  Apostle  behind,  we  encounter  in 
this  book  the  great  personality  of  St.  Paul, 
we  may  wonder  why  so  large  a  space  is  given 
to  a  voyage  and  a  shipwreck,  where  the  very 
name  of  God  is  but  scantily  mentioned,  while 
we  long  in  vain  for  full  details  of  his  mis- 
sionary and  pastoral  work  during  the  eigh- 
teen months  at  Corinth  or  the  three  years  at 
Ephesus.  But  it  does  not  follow,  because 
there  are  some  things  in  the  gift  which  sur- 
prise us,  that  therefore  the  gift  is  not  good. 
The  supreme  wisdom  of  the  Giver  is,  to  the 
devout  mind,  the  measure  of  its  thankfulness. 
Again,  let  us  mark  this  important  feature 
of  the  case,  that  the  book  before  us  is  quite 
unique.  If  we  were  to  lose  it  from  the  Bible, 
there  is  no  book  else  that  could  stand  in  its 
place.  There  is  none  other  at  all  like  it,  or 
that  covers  any  part  of  the  same  ground.  If 
one  of  the  four  Gospels  were  lost,  we  should 
have    still    three    Gospels    remaining,    and    a 


20  The  Evidential  Value 

Christ,  familiar  and  dear  to  us,  whom  we 
could  reverence  and  adore.  If  even  two  or 
three  Apostolic  Epistles  were  to  vanish,  still 
more  than  a  dozen  such  documents  would  re- 
main in  our  hands,  to  tell  us  what  Christianity 
is,  and  to  insist  upon  its  claims.  But  if  the 
Book  of  Acts  were  gone,  there  would  be 
nothing  to  replace  it :  and  we  may  go  further 
and  say  that  the  Christian  Scriptures  would 
then  lie  before  us  in  two  disjointed  fragments. 
The  complete  arch  would  not  be  built.  In  a 
very  true  sense  it  may  be  asserted  that  the 
Book  of  the  Acts  is  the  keystone  of  this  part 
of  the  Bible.  The  very  perfection  thus  given 
to  the  structure  seems  to  show  that  the  struct- 
ure itself  is  not  accidental.  The  Divine  gift 
of  the  New  Testament  appears  to  us  all  the 
more  Divine,  because  the  Acts  of  the  Apos- 
tles make  it  complete  in  all  its  parts. 

Negatively  then,  even  in  regard  to  our  in- 
stinctive consciousness  of  its  value,  this  Book 
of  the  Acts  comes  to  us  with  high  claims  on 
our  confident  welcome  and  grateful  allegiance. 
And   we   can    adopt   moreover   another   nega- 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 


tive  mode  of  putting  an  estimate  on  its  worth. 
There  are  certain  Apocryphal  Acts  of  the 
Apostles,  not  very  much  known  to  the  Chris- 
tian world  at  large,  but  yet  copious  and  varied, 
which  we  can  place  side  by  side  with  the  Ca- 
nonical Acts;  and  we  are  in  some  degree  able 
to  appreciate  the  worth  of  the  former  by  com- 
parison with  the  latter.  This  Apocryphal  lit- 
erature of  the  second  and  third  centuries  has 
been  recently  brought  to  view  more  than  for- 
merly; and  the  most  has  been  made  of  it  by 
those  who  are  disposed  to  make  the  least  of 
our  Authentic  Scriptures.  Leaving  all  the 
rest  of  this  literature  aside,  I  will  just  name 
three  of  the  documents  which  it  contains,  the 
''Acts  of  Paul  and  Thecla,"  the  "Clementine 
Homilies,"  of  which  the  hero  is  Peter,  and 
thirdly,  the  "Acts  of  Peter  and  Paul,"  with 
the  view  of  pointing  out  what  kind  of  impres- 
sion our  familiar  and  venerable  history  of 
these  two  Apostles  makes  on  our  minds,  in 
comparison  with  those  other  Acts. 

The  scene  of  "  the  Acts  of  Paul  and  Thecla," 
is  laid   chiefly  at  Iconium.     Names   of  places 


22  The  Evidential  Value 

and  persons  suggested  by  the  New  Testament, 
such  as  Daphne,  Lystra,  and  Myra  on  the  one 
hand,  and  Onesiphorus,  Tryphaena,  and  Demas 
on  the  other,  seem  to  be  put  together  in  this 
document  very  much  at  random.  Even  its 
geography  forms  a  strong  contrast  with  the 
geography  of  St.  Luke's  history.  No  very 
clear  distinction  is  drawn  between  the  Pisid- 
ian  Antioch  and  the  Syrian  Antioch ;  and 
Lystra  is  put  in  its  wrong  place  as  regards 
the  former  city.  But  especially  must  be  noted 
its  utter  want  of  dignity,  as  constituting  a 
strong  contrast  with  the  Evangelist's  elevat- 
ing narrative.  Two  of  the  chief  features  of 
this  Apocryphal  work  are  a  fantastic  love- 
story,  and  a  form  of  asceticism  quite  different 
from  what  is  inculcated  in  the  New  Testament. 
And  let  it  not  be  said  that  it  is  waste  of  time 
to  make  mention  of  a  document  now  obsolete 
and  forgotten.  Once  these  Acts  of  Paul  and 
Thecla  were  publicly  read  in  church.  What 
if  they  had  now  been  recognized  as  part  of 
the  New  Testament?  We  can  appreciate  the 
value  of  such  an  escape,  when  we  think  what 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  23 

it  would  have  been,  if  we  were  compelled  to 
view  the  story  of  Bel  and  the  Dragon  as  part 
of  the  Old. 

A  much  larger  space  in  literature  is  filled 
by  what  we  know  as  the  ''Clementines."  We 
are  acquainted  with  them  in  two  forms — the 
"Homilies,"  of  which  the  Greek  text  is  extant, 
and  the  "  Recognitions,"  of  which  we  possess 
only  a  Latin  translation.  The  theory  on 
which  they  are  based  is  not  simply  that  there 
was  a  long  continued  antagonism  between  the 
disciples  of  St.  Peter  and  the  disciples  of  St. 
Paul,  but  that  there  was  a  sharp  antagonism 
between  those  Apostles  themselves — a  theory 
which  has  now  been  actively  revived;  and  the 
general  drift  of  this  production  is  to  glorify  the 
former  at  the  expense  of  the  latter.  It  may 
suffice  here  to  quote  Baron  de  Bunsen,  who 
was  by  no  means  restricted  and  narrow  in  his 
orthodoxy.  He  regards  these  Acts  of  Peter  as 
a  pure  fiction,  and  protests  against  the  modern 
attempt  of  Baur  to  supplant  history  by  means 
of  a  novel.  This  subject  of  the  Pseudo-Cle- 
mentines must  be  referred   to   hereafter.     All 


24  The  Evidential  Value 

that  need  be  said  on  the  general  subject  here 
is  that  because  there  were  antagonistic  parties 
afterwards  appealing  to  the  names  of  Peter 
and  Paul,  it  does  not  follow  that  those  two 
Apostles  were  opposed.  We  see  their  unity 
in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  If  on  the  as- 
sumption of  their  antagonism  it  is  concluded 
that  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  were  written 
to  produce  an  imaginary  reconcilement  of  such 
antagonism  —  by  this  kind  of  reasoning  any 
theory  in  the  world  might  be  constructed. 
The  best  answer  to  such  fancies  is  to  note  the 
transparent  truthfulness  and  noble  tone  of  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  their  direct  singleness 
of  purpose,  and  the  absence  from  them  of 
all  dreamy  speculative  discussion ;  and  these 
are  the  features  of  the  book  on  which  I  am 
now  laying  stress.  Judging  by  mere  impres- 
sion it  is  easy  to  say  confidently — on  a  com- 
parison of  the  two  documents — that  the  Acts 
represent  reality  and  that  the  Pseudo-Cle- 
mentines arc  a  romance. 

A  third  Apocryphal  document,  which  is  not 
altogether   destitute  of  dignity  and  beauty,  is 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  25 

entitled  the  "Acts  of  Peter  and  Paul."  That 
this  document  is  a  random  composition  is 
evident  from  its  geographical  inaccuracy.  In 
the  authentic  account  of  St.  Paul's  voyage 
from  Malta  to  Puteoli,  it  is  distinctly  said 
that  the  ship  staid  one  day  at  Rhegium;  and 
this  statement  is  expressly  connected  with  a 
change  of  wind,  which  admitted  of  no  delay; 
and  it  is  added  that  they  arrived  at  Puteoli 
the  "next  day";  whereas  in  these  Apocry- 
phal Acts  it  is  stated  that  Paul  went  across 
from  Rhegium  to  Messina,  and  there  ordained 
a  bishop.  We  see  here  most  distinctly  the 
traces  of  a  later  period.  On  the  other  hand 
we  have  in  this  document  the  most  express 
recognition  of  the  unity  of  Peter  and  Paul  in 
their  spirit  and  their  teaching.  Thus  one  set 
of  Apocryphal  Acts  may  be  used  as  a  counter- 
poise to  others. 

On  the  whole  there  is  no  reason  to  regret 
that  great  pains  have  lately  been  taken  to 
bring  all  literature  of  this  class  more  fully  to 
view  than  of  old.  The  more,  it  seems  to  me, 
that  such  Apocryphal  Acts  are  read,  the  bet- 


26  The  Evidential  Value 

ter.  The  more  carefully  such  writings  are 
placed  all  around  the  Scriptural  narrative 
and  compared  with  it,  the  more  docs  that 
narrative  tower  above  them  all,  like  a  moun- 
tain above  lower  hazy  heights,  with  a  golden 
light  ever  upon  its  summit. 

Thus  far  the  argument  for  the  value  of  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles  has  been  negative.  In 
the  remainder  of  our  time  we  must  look  at  its 
positive  side.  And  here  I  am  disposed,  in 
the  first  place,  to  lay  great  stress  on  broad 
and  general  characteristics.  What  an  honest, 
healthy  tone  there  is  in  the  book  !  Its  spirit 
is  altogether  wholesome  throughout.  It  is 
like  the  fresh  breezy  air  of  the  mountains 
or  the  sea.  There  is  nothing  morbid  in  it 
from  beginning  to  end.  No  one  can  study  it 
without  being  made  better.  How  bright  too 
and  encouraging  are  these  early  annals  of 
Apostolic  adventure  and  success  !  How  like 
they  arc,  in  this  respect,  to  the  Gospel  of 
St.  Luke  !  The  book  has  been  termed  an 
Evangelical  Odyssey.  We  can  hardly  accept 
this  description   as  altogether  correct:  for  the 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  27 

book  throughout  is  intensely  serious  and  sol- 
emn :  but  we  ought  not  to  overlook  that 
freshness  and  cheerfulness  which  suggested 
the  description. 

And  in  order  to  give  definiteness  to  an  im- 
pression of  which  we  all  must  be  conscious,  I 
am  inclined  to  fix  on  two  characteristics  of 
the  book ;  first  its  transparent  truthfulness, 
secondly  the  noble  generosity  of  its  tone. 

As  to  its  truthfulness,  I  think  we  might  easi- 
ly test  this  without  any  minute  criticism.  And 
this,  in  some  respects,  is  better  than  any  oth- 
er test.  How  artless  is  the  narrative !  While 
minute  and  full  of  detail,  how  simple  is  the 
telling  of  the  story;  how  remote  from  any  show 
of  contrivance;  how  free  from  any  nervous  anx- 
iety to  justify  or  excuse  itself,  or  to  prove  its 
own  consistency  !  For  instance,  how  honestly 
are  recorded  the  inconsistencies  of  the  early 
Church  and  the  faults  of  some  of  its  leading 
men.  The  mean  selfishness  of  Ananias  and 
Sapphira  are  related  at  the  very  fore-front. 
The  historian  is  not  ashamed  to  say  that  the 
first  organization  of  a  Christian  ministry  arose 


28  The  Evidential  Value 

out  of  a  dispute  among  some  widows.  Again, 
it  is  not  concealed  that  the  wider  diffusion 
of  missionary  work  was  developed  in  conse- 
quence of  a  quarrel  between  Barnabas  and  Paul 
through  the  defection  of  Mark.  So  again  at 
Ephesus,  Luke  chronicles  the  shame  as  well  as 
the  glory  of  the  Church,  and  tells  us  that  some 
of  its  members,  while  joining  in  its  sacred  rites, 
associated  themselves  also  with  the  occult  arts 
of  necromancy.  As  regards  the  great  Apostle 
himself,  his  hasty  angry  answer  to  the  high 
priest  is  recorded  with  as  much  straightfor- 
ward simplicity  as  his  speech  to  the  Lystrians 
and  his  defence  before  Festus.  And  to  turn 
to  another  aspect  of  truthfulness,  how  admira- 
ble are  some  of  the  descriptions,  as  for  instance 
in  the  accounts  of  the  mobs  at  Ephesus  and 
Jerusalem  !  What  an  air  of  reality  pervades 
these  two  stories  !  In  the  sagacious  appeasing 
of  the  tumult  by  the  town-clerk  in  the  former 
instance,  and  in  the  adroitness  with  which  the 
Apostle,  after  speaking  in  Greek  to  the  Ro- 
man officer,  turns  round  to  address  the  an- 
gry  crowd    in    Hebrew, — in    both    these    cases 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  29 

we  might  almost  say  that  there  is  a  touch  of 
humor.  Or  to  take  two  other  parallel  scenes 
of  a  totally  different  kind.  Twice  St.  Paul  is 
described  as  among  untutored  heathens,  who 
spoke  some  language  which  was  neither  Greek 
nor  Latin:  and  in  each  case  the  story  is  singu- 
larly true  to  nature.  On  one  occasion,  after 
the  working  of  a  miracle,  there  is  an  attempt 
to  worship  him  as  a  god,  and  then  under  the 
influence  of  fanatical  Jews  he  is  stoned.  On 
the  other  occasion,  because  a  viper  fastens 
upon  his  hand,  he  is  believed  to  be  a  mur- 
derer, and  then  because  the  viper  does  not  hurt 
him,  he  is  believed  to  be  a  god.  How  thor- 
oughly natural  too  are  the  touches  of  char- 
acter which  we  find  in  various  parts  of  the 
book  !  Take,  for  instance,  the  manifest  false- 
hood introduced  into  the  letter  of  Claudius 
Lysias,  when  he  finds  that  he  has  been  tri- 
fling with  St.  Paul's  Roman  citizenship,  or 
the  equally  manifest  falsehood  in  the  speech 
of  Tertullus,  when  he  is  retained  as  counsel  by 
the  Jews,  to  secure,  if  possible,  St.  Paul's  con- 
demnation.    And,  to  give  just  one  more  ex- 


30  The  Evidential  Value 

ample,  how  thoroughly  like  what  we  should 
expect  from  a  Roman  official,  in  the  presence 
of  angry  fanatics  and  of  religious  questions 
which  he  does  not  understand,  is  the  conduct 
of  Gallio  at  Corinth  !  Nothing  is  said  here  of 
the  correspondence  of  his  conduct  with  the 
character  which  is  given  of  him  in  history. 
That  subject  will  properly  belong  to  the  last 
lecture.  I  am  speaking  here  of  what  is  true 
to  nature,  not  of  what  is  true  to  historic  fact. 
All  that  is  pointed  out  here,  is  the  honesty 
of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  as  gathered  from 
what  we  see  on  the  very  surface  of  its  narra- 
tion. And  I  will  just  add  this  remark,  that  a 
general  impression  of  this  kind,  ranging  over 
a  great  number  and  variety  of  incidents,  is  of 
a  high  value. 

Here,  however,  we  are  partly  engaged  in 
an  evidential  inquiry:  and  it  is  desirable  for 
a  few  moments  to  look  below  the  surface. 
Moreover  an  instinctive  impression  of  natural 
truthfulness  ought  to  stand  the  test  of  criti- 
cisms. An  impression  of  this  kind  can  be 
submitted    to    cross-examination.     We    Feel    a 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  31 

narrative  to  be  naturally  and  truthfully  told; 
and  we  ask  ourselves  what  are  the  marks  by 
which  we  can  examine  and  justify  such  an 
impression.  I  will  invite  you  then  to  join  me, 
while  I  apply  this  method  of  close  criticism 
to  one  selected  passage  of  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles. 

There  are  two  accounts  of  the  conversion 
of  Cornelius;  one  given  by  St.  Luke  in  the 
direct  narrative  of  the  tenth  chapter;  the  other 
by  St.  Peter,  when  defending  himself  before  the 
apostles  and  elders  at  Jerusalem,  as  recorded 
in  the  eleventh.  I  suppose  the  general  im- 
pression of  most  readers,  as  to  this  reitera- 
tion, would  be  this,  that,  the  occasion  being 
very  important,  it  is  intentionally  made  em- 
phatic in  this  way.  And  to  this  view  I  should 
see  no  objection,  if  we  had  simply  a  case  of 
reiteration  before  us.  The  Bishop  of  Lincoln 
devoutly  says  here  that  the  Holy  Spirit,  in 
the  structure  of  Scripture,  does  not  disdain 
to  use  repetition :  Reuss  says  that  we  have 
here  a  specimen  of  the  Oriental  style  of  nar- 
ration; and  neither  of  these  opinions  need  be 


32  The  Evidential  Value 

blamed,  nor  are  they  inconsistent  with  one 
another.  But,  as  I  have  implied,  we  have  in 
this  place  not  to  deal  with  a  case  of  mere  re- 
iteration. On  the  second  occasion,  when  the 
conversion  of  Cornelius  is  related,  St.  Peter  is 
speaking  under  apologetic  conditions.  He  ad- 
dresses himself  therefore  to  the  emergency,  as 
any  sensible  man  would  do,  speaking  at  such 
a  moment  under  a  serious  sense  of  responsi- 
bility. The  expostulation  was — "  Thou  went- 
est  in  to  men  uncircumcised,  and  didst  eat  with 
them."  His  task  (and  it  was  a  difficult  one) 
was  to  convince  those  who,  under  deep-rooted 
prejudice,  so  expostulated.  Hence  he  omits 
certain  things  which  appear  in  St.  Luke's  nar- 
rative, but  which  are  of  no  moment  to  his 
argument.  Certain  points  again  in  that  nar- 
rative he  repeats  with  care,  and  lays  special 
stress  upon  them.  Certain  other  things  he 
adds;  and  we  should  not  have  known  them 
at  all,  were  it  not  that  St.  Peter  was  called 
upon  thus  to  justify  and  defend  himself  before 
his  fellow-apostles  and  others.  Let  us  look 
at   his   speech   under   these   three   heads. 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  33 

He  does  not  say  that  when  the  vision  came 
to  him  he  was  on  the  housetop,  or  that  it  was 
midday,  or  that  he  was  hungry,  or  that  they 
were  preparing  his  meal  when  the  sheet  de- 
scended, or  that  he  "came  down"  from  the 
roof  to  meet  the  messengers.  All  these  things, 
though  most  interesting  in  the  narrative,  and 
indeed  important  for  the  natural  telling  of 
the  story,  were  of  no  argumentative  value  in 
the  serious  effort  of  the  moment.  Again,  he 
does  not  say  any  thing  about  that  animated 
part  of  the  story,  in  which  the  messengers  are 
described  as  inquiring  their  way  to  "the  house 
of  Simon  the  tanner."  All  such  particulars 
were  outside  his  own  experience;  and  it  would 
have  been  unreal,  perhaps  suspicious,  to  have 
named  them.  But,  again,  he  does  not  say  that 
Cornelius  was  a  centurion.  He  calls  him  sim- 
ply "the  man"  at  Caesarea.  The  fact  that  he 
was  a  Roman  soldier  would  not  predispose  any 
Jew  to  regard  him  with  complacency.  Nor 
does  Peter  describe  the  admirable  character 
of  Cornelius,  which  is  made  so  prominent  in 
the  direct  narrative.  For  the  exercise  of  moral 
3 


34  The  Evidential  J  ralue 

persuasion  upon  him  at  Joppa,  in  reference  to 
the  extraordinary  summons  he  was  receiving 
to  go  to  Cocsarea,  this  description  was  of  high 
importance.  One  of  the  lessons  he  was  to 
learn  was  that  God's  distinctions  between  one 
man  and  another  rest  on  moral  grounds,  and 
that  it  is  possible  for  a  heathen  to  be  drawn 
by  the  grace  of  God  towards  the  highest  good 
without  any  Judaism  intervening.  But  sucji 
a  view  presented  abruptly  to  "the  apostles 
and  elders "  at  that  moment  might  have  cre- 
ated a  prejudice  in  their  minds,  and  made  them 
reluctant  to  listen.  They  were  not  disposed 
as  yet  to  think  that  any  high  virtues  could 
exist,  irrespective  of  Judaic  conditions. 

But  on  certain  things  named  by  the  direct 
historian  St.  Peter  does  lay  special  stress, 
knowing  that  they  will  tell  upon  the  convic- 
tion of  his  hearers.  Thus  he  says  that  he  was 
praying,  when  the  vision  came.  Whatever  lin- 
gering prejudice  there  might  have  been  in  the 
minds  of  the  Apostles,  they  knew  what  their 
Lord  had  said  concerning  prayer  and  the  an- 
swer to  prayer.     Again   Peter  noted   strongly 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  35 

the  remarkable  coincidence  as  to  time  and  cir- 
cumstance, in  this  wonderful  experience;  and 
they  had  the  fullest  belief  (and  they  would 
have  had  the  fullest  belief,  even  if  they  had 
not  heard  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount)  in  the 
minute  guiding  of  Special  Providence.  Again,, 
he  laid  emphatic  stress  on  that  voice  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  which  since  the  day  of  Pentecost, 
in  fulfilment  of  the  promise,  had  become  to 
them  an  articulate  voice.  Once  more,  though 
he  does  not  disturb  the  minds  of  his  hearers 
by  speaking  of  the  character  of  Cornelius,  he 
does  tell  them  expressly  that  "  an  angel "  had 
appeared  to  him.  This  fact  brought  the  occur- 
rences in  his  house  within  the  range  of  those 
recognized  Divine  communications,  of  which 
they  had  had  familiar  instances  in  the  history 
of  the  Old  Testament.  And  still  once  again, 
though  he  does  not  give  unimportant  details 
of  place  and  person  (does  not  say,  for  instance, 
that  he  was  lodging  "  in  the  house  of  Simon 
the  tanner")  he  does  specify  most  strongly 
the  personal  form  of  the  message  which  came 
from    Caesarea.     "  Simon,    zvJiich    is    surname  d 


36  The  Evidential  Value 

Peter" — four  times  in  this  whole  narrative  of 
the  Conversion  of  Cornelius  does  this  signifi- 
cant phrase  occur.  They  well  knew  that  the 
Lord  had  given  to  him  this  surname.  The  re- 
iteration too  (for  here  is  reiteration)  made 
the  surname  very  definite  to  their  minds,  as 
it  had  been  made  to  his.  Moreover  it  ex- 
pressed his  strong  personal  conviction  that 
he  had  received  a  call  to  a  special  mission,  so 
that,  to  quote  words  used  by  himself  long  af- 
terwards, the  Gentiles  "by  his  mouth"  were 
first  to  hear  directly  of  Christ.  All  these 
things  touched  them  very  closely,  and  must 
have  gathered  gradually  into  an  irresistible 
argument. 

And  now,  in  the  third  place,  let  me  point 
out  certain  things  which  Peter,  while  telling 
his  own  story,  added  to  the  circumstances  re- 
lated by  St.  Luke.  He  says  that  the  voice 
came  to  him  "from  heaven/'  He  says  that 
the  sheet  gradually  approached  to  him  and 
came  near  to  him.  He  says  that  he  looked 
upon  its  contents  intently  and  gazed  deliber- 
ately.    All  this  is  part  of  the  natural  vividness 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  37 

with  which  a  man  gives  the  account  of  what 
has  happened  to  himself.  But  moreover  it 
tended  to  show  to  his  hearers  that  the  teach- 
ing which  came  to  him  through  this  vision, 
was  no  mere  vague  impression,  but  a  very  de- 
liberate conviction,  seriously  accepted.  And 
finally  mark  how  he  calls  attention  to  the 
witnesses  and  the  companions  of  his  jour- 
ney to  Caesarea.  "  Moreover  these  six  breth- 
ren accompanied  me."  But  for  this  pointed 
and  lively  reference  in  his  speech  we  should 
not  have  known  that  there  were  "six."  Nor 
should  we  have  known  from  what  is  related 
in  the  direct  narrative  that  he  took  these  six 
men  with  him  to  Jerusalem  (in  itself  a  most 
important  and  convincing  fact)  to  attest  the 
truth  of  this  great  transaction.  Above  all, 
when  he  comes  to  speak  of  the  descent  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  at  Caesarea,  he  describes  the  pro- 
cess of  his  own  mind.  "Then  remembered  I 
the  word  of  the  Lord."  They  too  had  heard 
the  same  word  of  the  Lord.  I  shall  have  oc- 
casion to  refer  to  this  point  again  in  the  next 
lecture,   as   an   illustration   of  the    connection 


38  The  Evidential  Value 

between  the  Acts  and  the  Gospels.  Here  I 
adduce  it  only  as  an  indication  of  natural 
truthfulness. 

This  analysis  of  the  relation  between  the 
tenth  and  eleventh  chapters  of  the  Acts  of 
the  Apostles  is  not  by  any  means  exhaustive. 
It  might  be  pursued  even  more  minutely  and 
might  be  made  more  complete.  But  enough 
has  been  said  for  my  present  purpose;  and  I 
think  it  will  be  admitted  that  we  have  here 
not  by  any  means  a  case  of  mere  bald  reitera- 
tion, but  on  the  contrary  a  most  real  and 
artless  specimen  of  the  re-telling  of  a  story 
with  such  variations  of  emphasis  and  informa- 
tion as  exactly  fit  the  occasion.  And  will  any 
one  say  that  all  these  minute  differences  and 
correspondences  were  ingeniously  invented,  in 
order,  on  examination,  to  produce  the  impres- 
sion of  an  early  and  contemporary  date  in  a 
document  really  composed  and  put  together 
long  afterwards  ?  In  answer  to  this  question 
I  will  only  make  two  remarks.  I  will  ask  you 
first  what  your  own  impression  would  be  on  the 
appearance  of  such  phenomena  in  an  examina- 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  39 

tion  of  documents  in  a  court  of  justice.  And 
next  I  will  take  the  liberty  of  adding,  that, 
though  I  have  a  moderately  good  acquaint- 
ance with  commentaries  on  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles,  I  never  saw  this  argument  definitely 
laid  hold  of,  until  I  thought  of  it  independ- 
ently myself.  Seventeen  centuries  is  a  long 
time  to  wait  for  the  ingenuity  of  a  forger  in 
Alexandria  or  in  Rome  to  find  its  reward  here 
in  Philadelphia. 

I  pass  now  to  the  other  point — from  the 
truthfulness  which  wins  our  confidence  to  the 
generosity  which  moves  our  hearts.  Truthful- 
ness and  generosity — the  two  qualities  are 
very  nearly  allied,  whether  in  the  individual 
character  or  in  the  religious  tone  of  a  book. 
If  we  see  them  then  in  conjunction  here,  each 
strengthens  the  evidence  supplied  by  the  oth- 
er. There  is  presented  to  us  all  through  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles  a  high,  noble,  and  un- 
selfish standard  of  Christian  living.  A  gen- 
erous self-effacement  is  the  feature  of  those 
whom  we  see  there  acting  as  the  chief  char- 
acters.    And    this   in  itself  is   a    Divine   mark 


40  The  Evidential  Value 

on   the  book  which   Christian    hearts   at   least 
will  readily  recognize. 

There  is  first  the  instinct  and  the  habit  of 
large  and  liberal  giving  for  the  relief  of  the 
poor  and  the  distressed.  I  use  the  words  ''in- 
stinct"  and  "habit,"  because  we  see  this  feat- 
ure of  the  Christian  life  both  at  the  beginning 
and  the  end  of  the  book.  No  sooner  is  the 
excitement  of  Pentecost  over,  than  this  sym- 
pathy and  this  spirit  of  mutual  help  show 
themselves  in  lavish  giving.  We  may  say,  if 
we  will,  that  in  the  first  method  of  practically 
manifesting  this  feeling  there  was  a  kind  of 
communism,  which  it  would  not  have  been 
wise  to  continue.  But  even  at  this  early 
stage  of  the  history  there  appears  no  senti- 
mental weakness.  The  terrible  rebukes  given 
to  Ananias  and  Sapphira  and  to  Simon  Magus, 
must  not  be  overlooked.  Such  indignation  is 
the  dark  background,  which  is  necessary  in 
order  to  present  true  benevolence  in  its  prop- 
er bright  relief.  We  must  mark  too  the  pains 
and  trouble  that  were  taken  afterwards  in  dis- 
tributing the  gifts  of  charity  and  in  choosing 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  41 

suitable  agents.  The  road  between  Antioch 
and  Jerusalem  was  trod  and  re-trod  by  the 
footsteps  of  those  who  conveyed  these  gifts. 
And  now,  if  we  follow  the  course  of  St. 
Paul's  life,  we  find  him  working  with  his 
own  hands,  both  at  Corinth  and  Ephesus, 
and  saying  that  he  did  this,  that  he  might 
furnish  an  example  of  helping  others  through 
our  own  self-denial.  At  the  latter  of  these 
cities  we  mark  how  the  inconsistent  disci- 
ples, named  above,  who  had  tampered  with 
sorcery,  manifested,  when  touched  in  con- 
science, their  true  Christian  repentance  by 
giving  up  their  "  fifty  thousand  pieces  of  sil- 
ver"; and  we  can  read  between  the  lines  and 
see  the  indignation  of  St.  Paul  and  St.  Luke 
against  the  sordid  selfishness  of  Demetrius 
and  his  craftsmen,  who  opposed  Christianity, 
because  it  was  likely  to  undermine  their  prof- 
its. Above  all  we  hear  the  Apostle  quoting 
that  saying  of  Christ:  "  It  is  more  blessed  to 
give  than  to  receive," — that  golden  proverb, 
of  which  we  should  have  known  nothing, 
were    it    not    for    the    Acts    of  the    Apostles. 


42  The  Evidential  Value 

And  finally  we  find  him  saying,  at  the  close 
of  his  last  missionary  journey,  that  he  had 
come  to  Jerusalem  "to  bring  alms  to  his 
nation,"  an  intimation  which,  as  we  shall  see, 
is  an  invaluable  link  with  the  Epistles.  Here 
I  adduce  it  simply  in  illustration  of  a  gen- 
eral  characteristic   of  the  Acts. 

It  is  the  enumeration  of  such  instances 
which  justifies  and  explains  our  general  im- 
pression of  the  tone  of  the  book.  And  before 
I  quit  this  topic  I  am  tempted  to  go  back 
to  an  earlier  portion  of  the  Acts,  and  to  re- 
fer particularly  to  the  scene  in  the  house  of 
Tabitha.  For  my  own  part  I  am  inclined  to 
think  that  "the  widows,"  both  here  and  in 
the  account  of  the  institution  of  the  deacons, 
vwere  widows  enrolled,  not  for  the  receiving 
of  relief,  but  for  the  administration  of  relief. 
It  is  remarkable  that  the  first  organization 
of  the  deacons,  the  earliest -named  part  of 
the  establishment  of  a  Christian  ministry, 
arose  out  of  questions  connected  with  prac- 
tical charity.  It  is  to  be  noted  also  that 
t.hc    first    mention    of    the    presbyters    occurs 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  43 

in  connection  with  this  very  subject.  If  the 
suggestion  I  have  ventured  to  make  is  a 
sound  one,  we  reach  a  further  point  on  the 
same  line  of  thought ;  and  we  see  that 
the  very  earliest  ministry  in  the  Church  of 
Christ,  under  the  Apostles,  was  a  ministry 
of  women  for  the  exercise  of  sympathetic 
help. 

But  not  only  generosity  and  charity,  in  re- 
spect of  money  and  the  relief  of  want,  are 
characteristics  of  this  document;  but  gener- 
osity and  charity  in  the  widest  sense.  The 
spirit  of  self-effacement  is  conspicuous  through- 
out. How  readily  the  Apostles  seem  to  stand 
aside,  that  they  may  give  place  to  Stephen  and 
even  to  Philip  !  But  let  us  fix  this  portion  of 
the  Acts  in  our  minds  by  reverting  specially 
to  the  example  of  Barnabas.  The  Bible  is  so 
biographical  in  its  structure,  that  in  adopting 
this  course,  we  are  acting  in  true  harmony  with 
its  spirit.  Not  only  is  Barnabas  the  great  ear- 
liest example  of  lavish  giving  in  the  Church, 
and  the  great  and  bright  contrast  to  the  grudg- 
ing meanness   of  Ananias  and   Sapphira;    not 


44  The  Evidential  Value 

only  is  it  to  his  hand  that  the  alms  of  others 
are  afterward  confided  to  convey  and  distrib- 
ute; but  he  it  is  who  introduces  Paul  to  the 
Apostles  at  one  of  the  most  critical  moments 
of  his  life;  he  it  is  who  trusts,  when  all  others 
are  distrustful,  and  removes  a  prejudice,  which 
otherwise  would  have  hindered  and  clogged, 
at  its  very  outset,  the  career  of  the  Apostle 
of  the  Gentiles.  He  it  is  who,  when  tidings 
came  of  the  extraordinary  success  of  the  Gos- 
pel among  the  heathen  at  Antioch,  was  "  sent 
forth  "  that  he  might  go  thither.  Why  was  he 
elected  ?  I  imagine  it  was  because  he  was  felt 
to  be  the  man  most  fitted  for  the  enterprise  by 
large-heartedness  and  generosity  of  character. 
He  it  is,  who,  "when  he  came  to  Antioch  and 
had  seen  the  grace  of  God,  was  glad":  and  it  is 
added:  "for  he  was  a  good  man!'  Why  is  this 
added  as  a  reason  for  what  precedes  ?  The 
word  "good"  here  does  not  mean  merely  that 
he  was  a  man  of  earnest  religious  character. 
This  we  know  from  the  general  context;  nor 
would  this  help  us  to  the  meaning  of  the  con- 
necting particle.     The  reason  is  given,  why  he 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  45 

unfeignedly  rejoiced  in  what  he  saw  at  Anti- 
och.  There  may  have  been  misgivings  and 
suspicions  at  Jerusalem:  but  in  his  generous 
heart  there  were  none.  At  this  point  of  the 
history  we  reach  the  climax  of  this  charming 
example.  He  departed  to  Tarsus  to  seek  the 
newly-converted  Paul ;  at  that  time  in  ob- 
scurity, and  "when  he  found  him  he  brought 
him  to  Antioch."  He  brought  to  that  place 
of  active  thought  and  active  work,  one  whose 
career  was  sure  to  supersede  and  eclipse  his 
own.  Renan,  with  all  his  strange  inconsist- 
encies and  wild  theories,  sometimes  displays 
extraordinary  sagacity  in  seizing  the  true  im- 
port of  salient  points  in  the  apostolic  history : 
and  his  remarks  concerning  Barnabas  are  very 
acute  and  happy.  He  says  that  "Christianity 
has  been  unfair  towards  this  great  man  in  not 
placing  "him  in  the  first  rank  among  its  found- 
ers," that  "  every  just  and  generous  thought 
had  Barnabas  for  its  patron."  As  to  the  par- 
ticular point  before  us,  the  bringing  of  Saul 
to  Antioch,  Renan  says:  "To  gain  this  migJity 
sotil,  to  make  himself  its  inferior,  to  prepare  the 


46  The  Evidential  Value 

field  most  favorable  for  the  development  of  its 
activity,  while  forgetting  himself,  this  is  surely 
the  highest  point  which  virtue  ever  reached. 
The  credit  of  St.  Paul's  career  is  due  to  the 
modest  man,  who  put  him  forward  on  all  oc- 
casions, obliterated  himself  in  his  presence, 
discovered  what  he  was  worth,  placed  him  in 
the  light,  perceived  beforehand  the  irremedia- 
ble mischief  which  contemptible  personalities 
might  do  to  the  work  of  God."  I  do  not  adopt 
Renan's  words  precisely;  but  they  contain  not 
a  little  truth.  Well  may  St.  Luke  feel  evi- 
dent delight  in  describing  such  a  character  as 
that  of  Barnabas;  and  the  Divine  mark  is  on 
this  part  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  not  only 
because  of  the  noble  standard  it  sets  before 
us,  but  because  it  gives  us  an  example  capable 
of  commonplace  imitation. 

Even  thus  the  instances  are  not  exhausted 
which  give  to  this  Book  of  the  Acts  such  an 
impress  of  noble  generosity.  Some  of  the  hea- 
then, who  are  prominently  mentioned  there, 
themselves  set  this  bright  and  cheerful  ex- 
ample.    Cornelius    "gave    much    alms    to    the 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  47 

Jewish  people":  the  Asiarchs  at  Ephesus  be- 
friended St.  Paul:  Julius  "  treated  his  prisoner 
courteously"  and  allowed  him  to  go  on  shore 
for  refreshment  among  his  friends.  The  un- 
lettered people  in  Malta  "  shewed  no  little 
kindness "  to  the  shipwrecked  crew  and  pas- 
sengers, both  on  their  first  reaching  the  shore, 
and  on  their  leaving  the  island  three  months 
afterwards.  Publius  too,  "the  chief  man  of 
the  island  "  manifested  the  same  spirit.  These 
are  touches  in  the  picture,  singularly  in  har- 
mony with  the  spirit  of  St.  Luke's  Gospel;  and 
they  ought  not  to  be  overlooked.  Of  course 
the  feeling  of  charity  within  the  Christian 
brotherhood  is  and  ought  to  be  more  intense, 
and  from  this  warm  centre  it  radiates  most 
effectually  outwards.  This  thought  of  broth- 
erhood comes  naturally  into  my  mind  as  I 
conclude.  The  name  of  this  great  city,  in 
which  I  am  now  permitted  to  lecture,  ought, 
I  think,  to  be  accepted  as  an  encouraging 
omen  for  the  future  of  this  world.  Phila- 
delphia—  in  the  deepest  spiritual  sense — esto 
perpetita.     However  separated  we   may  be   by 


48  Evidential  Value  of  the  Acts. 

intervals  of  space,  and  by  differences  of  oc- 
cupation, however  much  we  may  be  tried  by 
those  who  seek  to  divide  us  in  things  secu- 
lar and  things  sacred,  "  let  brotherly  love 
continue." 


LECTURE   II. 

The  Relation  of  this  Book  to  the 
Gospel  History. 


LECTURE    II. 

THE  RELATION  OF  THIS  BOOK  TO   THE  GOSPEL 
HISTORY. 


TN  accordance  with  the  plan  briefly  laid  down 
in  the  last  lecture,  our  occupation  now  is 
to  consider  this  Book  of  the  Acts  in  its  con- 
nection with  the  Gospels,  and  to  consider  the 
subject  in  such  a  way  as  to  keep  in  view  any 
evidential  results  which  appear  as  arising  from 
this  connection. 

The  point  of  meeting  of  St.  Luke's  First  and 
Second  Treatises  is  the  Ascension  of  Christ. 
Let  us  mark  this  fact.  There  is  a  wonderful 
fitness  in  this  arrangement  of  the  Bible.  Noth- 
ing could  be  more  beautiful — nothing  more  full 
of  meaning — nothing  in  more  obvious  harmony 
with  the  appointed  transition  from  what  Christ 
did  on  earth,  to  what  He  now  does  from  heaven. 
We  approach  our  subject  by  going  up  to  the 


52  The  Evidential  Value 

Mount  of  Olives:  and  we  gaze  from  thence  back 
upon  the  Gospel-time.  To  my  mind  there  is 
an  evidential  value  in  the  very  poetry  of  this 
scene  of  the  Ascension.  Of  course  such  a 
thought  cannot  be  pressed  very  far.  But  let 
us  pause  upon  it  for  a  moment.  It  is  edify- 
ing and  consoling.  There  is  a  charm  in  the 
very  season  of  the  year  when  this  event  oc- 
curred. The  variation  of  the  Calendar  never 
disturbs  its  connection  with  the  spring:  and 
the  spring,  whether  in  England  or  America, 
is  always  beautiful,  always  full  of  hope.  The 
whole  scene  of  the  Ascension  is  rich  in  en- 
couragement. This  was  evidently  felt  by  the 
Apostles,  though  we  are  surprised  that  it  could 
be  so.  It  is  part  of  that  cJicerf illness  of  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  which  Ave  noted  in  the 
last  lecture  as  characteristic  of  this  book.  We 
trace*  this  feature  in  it  from  the  very  first. 
Though  bereaved  as  no  men  ever  were  be- 
reaved before  (for  they  had  lost  from  earthly 
sight  such  a  friend  as  no  men  had  ever  lost 
before)  the  Apostles  returned  "with  great 
joy."     Such   a  state   of  feeling,   the   existence 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  53 

of  which  we  perceive  on  combining  together 
what  St.  Luke  says  at  the  end  of  his  "  former 
treatise"  and  the  beginning  of  the  second, 
quite  startles  us  as  we  pass  over  the  transi- 
tion-line from  the  Gospel  history :  and  this 
contrast  of  feeling  is  one  of  the  points  of  con- 
nection on  which  we  ought  to  dwell:  for  con- 
trast is  a  true  connection,  if  by  previous  state- 
ments we  have  been  led  to  look  for  it. 

All  this  gives  forth  a  very  special  claim  for 
the  observance  of  Ascension  Day:  and  the 
claim  comes  upon  us  with  additional  force, 
if  we  view  the  Ascension  as  a  binding  together 
of  the  Gospels  and  the  Acts,  as  a  testimony  to 
the  coherence  of  Scripture.  I  know  not  how 
the  day  is  observed  in  this  country.  In  Eng- 
land we  have  larger  congregations  on  this 
day  than  we  used  to  have;  there  is  a  deep- 
er feeling  on  the  subject  through  the  land; 
in  our  Cathedrals  we  have  more  music  ap- 
propriate to  the  Festival;  the  conviction  is 
stronger  that  the  compilers  of  our  Prayer  Book 
showed  a  true  instinct  in  appointing  special 
portions  of  the  service  to  mark  the  day  when 


54  The  Evidential  Value 

our  Lord  "in  the  sight  of  all  the  Apostles  as- 
cended up  into  heaven  to  prepare  a  place  for 
us,  that  where  He  is,  thither  we  might  also 
ascend,  and  reign  with  Him  in  glory."  We  all 
know  the  value  of  embodying  a  principle  in  an 
institution.  Your  Thanksgiving  Day  is  a  great 
institution,  as  I  had  an  opportunity  of  observ- 
ing, when  I  was  in  America  before.  This  is 
one  of  the  Thanksgiving  Days  of  the  Catholic 
Church;  and  its  careful  observance  is  a  per- 
petual assertion  of  a  cardinal  truth,  while  it 
impresses  us  with  a  deeper  consciousness  of 
the  evidential  value  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apos- 
tles. 

From  the  Ascension  of  Christ  let  us  now 
look  back  in  thought  to  the  Resurrection  of 
Christ.  In  another  way  this  great  fact  is  a 
strong  link  (in  a  very  true  sense  it  may  be 
said  to  be  the  strongest  link)  between  the 
Gospels  and  the  Acts.  The  Ascension  is  sub- 
ordinate to  the  Resurrection.  The  Ascension, 
in  fact,  may  very  correctly  be  viewed  as  the 
culminating  point  of  the  Resurrection  —  as 
merely  an  essential  part   of  it,   however   truly 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  55 

it  has  a  distinctive  character  of  its  own, 
worthy  of  separate  commemoration.  In  the 
very  nature  of  the  case  the  Resurrection  must 
be  consummate  in  its  importance.  Think  of 
what  it  is  that  one  should  rise  from  the  dead. 
Even  now,  with  the  light  of  Christianity  round 
us,  and  the  faith  of  all  the  past  Christian  ages 
resting  upon  us,  we  find  a  difficulty  in  be- 
lieving it.  What  a  feeling  of  wonder  and  per- 
plexity there  was  in  the  minds  of  the  disciples, 
in  regard  to  this  subject,  during  the  Gospel 
time!  What  confidence  there  is  in  the  same 
minds  here!  But  a  true  connection  between 
two  consecutive  parts  of  the  Bible  resides  in 
this  change.  What  was  said  above  of  contrast 
in  regard  to  the  Ascension  is  still  more  true 
and  forcible  here  in  regard  to  the  Resurrection. 
A  conviction  of  the  truth  of  the  Resurrection 
sends  a  thrill  through  the  whole  Book  of  the 
Acts,  and  gives  to  it  life  and  expression  and 
power.  Can  any  thing  be  more  incredible  than 
that  a  mere  delusion,  a  mere  sentimental  hys- 
teria, should  have  communicated  such  nerve 
to  the  book,  such  meaning  to  all  its  chapters, 


56  The  Evide7itial  Value 

such  vigor  to  its  words,  such  strong  consis- 
tency to  the  Acts  it  records?  The  very  form, 
the  very  substance  of  the  book  is  a  testimony 
to  the  fact  of  the  Resurrection:  and  surely  we 
may  argue  conversely,  that,  if  we  believe  this 
fact,  our  faith  rightly  diffuses  a  feeling  of  radi- 
ant confidence  over  the  whole  of  the  book. 

To  make  this  instinctive  impression  more 
definite,  and  to  give  a  reason  for  it,  let  us 
look  at  some  of  the  facts  of  the  case.  I  take 
eight  instances,  four  relating  to  the  work  of 
Peter,  four  relating  to  that  of  Paul.  They 
are  drawn  from  the  midst  of  occasions  and 
scenes  extremely  different  from  one  another: 
yet  they  are  all  harmonious  in  the  unity  of 
the  great  truth  I  am  noting.  I  will  name  them 
in  chronological  order,  adding  such  reflections 
as  they  naturally  suggest. 

Hear  how  on  the  day  of  Pentecost  St.  Peter 
speaks  of  the  Resurrection  !  He  has  been 
quoting  one  of  the  Psalms  of  David:  "Thou 
wilt  not  leave  my  soul  in  hell,  neither  wilt 
thou  suffer  thine  Holy  One  to  see  corruption." 
This,    says    Peter   before    all    the    people,    can 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  57 

not  refer  to  David.  That  prophet's  tomb  was 
near  them,  perhaps  in  their  very  sight,  as 
Peter  preached.  "This  the  prophet  spoke," 
said  Peter,  "of  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  that 
His  soul  was  not  left  in  hell,  neither  His  flesh 
did  see  corruption:  this  Jesus  hath  God  raised 
up,  whereof  we  all  are  witnesses."  What  I 
mark  here  is  St.  Peter's  confident  and  complete 
theological  teaching  on  the  subject.  Once  he 
had  been  full  of  all  sorts  of  doubts  and  diffi- 
culties in  reference  to  this  question,  and  even 
he  had  been  guilty  of  disrespectful  expostula- 
tion with  his  Lord,  when  He  predicted  His 
dying  and  rising  again.  Now  the  whole  the- 
ological range  of  the  subject  seemed  present 
to  his  mind  and  to  be  held  with  the  firm 
grasp  of  unhesitating  conviction.  He  had 
often  heard  his  Master  quote  the  Old  Tes- 
tament. Now  he  does  the  same.  This  is  a 
topic  on  which  it  is  well  worth  while  to 
pause  very  carefully.  Is  it  not  evident  that 
the  promise  has  been  fulfilled — that  the  Holy 
Spirit  has  "  taken  of  the  things  of  Christ  and 
shown  them  unto  him" — that  "  all  things  have 


58  The  Evidential  Value 

been  brought    to    his   remembrance,   whatever 
Christ  had  spoken  to  him  "  ? 

Now  turn  to  another  occasion,  which  speed- 
ily followed.  Peter  and  John  have  been  to- 
gether in  the  Temple;  and  there,  at  the  pub- 
lic gate,  in  the  name  of  Christ,  have  healed 
a  man  who  was  lame  from  his  birth.  This 
appearance  of  these  two  disciples  side  by 
side,  here  and  afterwards  on  the  mission  to 
Samaria,  is  itself  an  expression  of  the  har- 
mony of  the  Acts  with  the  Epistles.  To- 
gether they  had  been  in  the  first  interview 
with  Jesus  near  the  Jordan.  Together  they 
had  been  with  Him  among  the  nets  on  the 
Sea  of  Tiberias.  Probably  they  were  com- 
panions when  the  disciples  were  sent  forth 
two  and  two.  Certainly  they  were  selected  as 
companions,  when  preparation  was  to  be  made 
for  the  Passover.  Certainly  they  were  to- 
gether immediately  after  the  Resurrection  and 
again  at  the  solemn  moment  of  the  pastoral 
commission.  Their  friendship  is  a  most  touch- 
ing part  of  the  Gospel  history;  and  we  are 
struck    by    the    naturalness,    so    to    speak,    of 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  59 

their  appearing  here  together  at  the  opening 
of  the  apostolic  history.  The  point  before  us 
is  their  assertion  regarding  the  Resurrection, 
to  which  certainly  they  were  able  to  bear 
special  testimony.  "Ye  denied  the  Holy  One 
and  the  Just,  and  desired  a  murderer  to  be 
granted  unto  you;  and  killed  the  Prince  of  life, 
whom  God  hath  raised  from  the  dead;  where- 
of we  are  witnesses."  These  were  their  words 
in  Solomon's  Porch.  How  different  had  the 
conduct  of  these  two  disciples  been,  soon 
after  the  time  when  the  last  mention  of  Solo- 
mon's Porch  occurred  !  How  full  of  fear  were 
they  then  !  How  unflinching  in  courage  are 
they  now  !  And  as  we  pursue  the  narrative, 
we  find  that  the  Sadducees,  "vexed  that  these 
men  were  teaching  the  people  and  preaching 
through  Jesus  the  resurrection  from  the  dead," 
brought  them  before  the  authorities;  and  still 
the  same  confident  language  is  used:  "Be  it 
known  unto  you,  that  by  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ  of  Nazareth,  whom  ye  crucified,  whom 
God  raised  from  the  dead,  even  by  Him  doth 
this   man   stand  before  you  whole;"   and  it  is 


60  The  Evidential  Value 

added,  with  great  emphasis,  that  "  they  marked 
the  boldness  of  Peter  and  John."  We  remem- 
ber how  it  had  been  with  these  two  Apostles, 
a  short  time  before,  in  connection  with  the 
suffering,  the  death,  and  resurrection  of  Christ. 
Both  had  slept  in  the  Garden  of  the  Agony: 
both  had  forsaken  the  Lord  in  fear,  and  Peter 
had  done  worse:  both,  when  the  news  came 
of  the  open  tomb,  had  been  filled  with  fear 
and  doubt.  Now  the  change  is  marvellous. 
Their  fearless  confidence  is  so  great  that  noth- 
ing could  surpass  it;  and  Peter,  in  witnessing 
of  the  Resurrection,  as  truly  proves  by  his 
new  courage  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  as 
he  had  proved  it  by  his  theological  teaching 
on  this  great  subject. 

Before  long  a  fresh  series  of  incidents  suc- 
ceed, but  still  with  the  same  witnessing  to 
the  truth  of  the  Resurrection  of  Christ.  Many 
miracles  were  wrought  by  the  Apostles,  so 
as  to  produce  a  solemn  and  reverential  awe 
among  those  who  beheld  them,  Peter  being 
named  as  the  central  figure  in  these  scenes. 
Again   the   Sadducees   are   filled   with    "  indig- 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  61 

nation";  and  the  Apostles  are  put  in  prison. 
They  are  miraculously  delivered  and  return  to 
their  office  of  public  teaching.  When  brought 
before  the  Council,  we  read  that  Peter  and 
the  other  Apostles  ''answered  and  said:  We 
ought  to  obey  God  rather  than  man:  the  God 
of  our  fathers  raised  up  Jesus,  whom  ye  slew 
and  hanged  on  a  tree:  Him  hath  God  raised 
with  His  right  hand  to  be  a  Prince  and  a  Sa- 
viour .  .  .  and  we  are  witnesses  of  these 
things."  The  thoughts  which  this  scene  brings 
into  the  mind  are  somewhat  different  from  the 
thoughts  suggested  by  the  preceding.  Then 
we  saw  St.  Peter  in  companionship  with  his 
early  friend  St.  John:  the  biographies  of  the 
two  men  are  blended  together,  as  we  have 
seen  them  blended  on  earlier  occasions;  and 
Peter  appears,  with  his  friend,  as  the  great  ex- 
ample of  courage.  Now  we  see  Peter  with  the 
general  group  of  the  Apostles,  their  spokes- 
man, their  representative,  witnessing,  in  their 
name  as  well  as  his  own,  to  the  Resurrection 
of  Christ.  This  truth  is  to  be  the  doctrine, 
the  living  power,  the  assuring  comfort,  of  the 


62  The  Evidential  Value 

Universal  Church.  This  testimony  is  the  as- 
sertion of  the  great  Catholic  truth,  which  we 
proclaim  in  such  glorious  words  at  the  close 
of  the  Nicene  Creed:  "I  look  for  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  dead,  and  the  life  of  the  world  to 
come." 

The  last  instance  selected  from  the  testi- 
mony of  Peter  concerning  the  Resurrection  de- 
serves peculiar  attention.  They  are  the  words 
addressed  to  Cornelius.  "  Him  God  raised 
from  the  dead  and  showed  Him  openly — not 
to  all  the  people,  but  to  witnesses  chosen 
before  of  God — even  to  us,"  he  adds,  "who  did 
eat  and  drink  with  Him  after  He  rose  from 
the  dead."  I  can  imagine  a  question  arising 
in  thoughtful  minds,  when  we  read  here  that 
Jesus  Christ,  after  His  Resurrection,  was  not 
shown  openly  to  all  the  people,  but  only  to  se- 
lect witnesses.  Is  not  this  somewhat  strange  ? 
it  might  be  asked.  Is  not  the  evidence  of  the 
Resurrection  in  this  way  somewhat  attenuated  ? 
Was  not  the  effect  of  this  great  event  upon 
the  minds  of  the  people  made  somewhat  less 
than  it  might  otherwise  have   been  ?     I   think 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  63 

:hat  a  little  reflection  will  show  that  there  is 
?rror  in  these  thoughts.  The  very  fact  that 
.10  public  recognition  of  the  risen  Saviour  is 
recorded,  though  at  first  it  might  seem  to 
detract  from  the  evidence  of  His  Resurrec- 
tion, now  really  serves  to  enhance  it:  for  it 
shows  how  free  the  witnesses  of  this  event 
were  from  a  disposition  to  make  their  case 
stronger  than  it  was  in  fact.  And,  after  all, 
the  conviction  of  mankind  in  all  ages,  as  to 
this  fact,  must  rest  on  the  testimony  of  a 
few  at  this  particular  time.  But  chiefly  I 
think  we  should  remember  that  this  reserved 
manifestation  to  a  few  chosen  disciples,  ap- 
pointed to  be  His  witnesses  afterwards,  was 
more  in  keeping  with  the  dignity  and  glory  of 
the  risen  Saviour,  which  would  now  have  been 
lowered  and  made  common  by  that  promiscu- 
ous and  unrestricted  intercourse  with  men, 
which  was  necessary  to  His  previous  minis- 
try. One  feeling  which  we  ought  to  foster 
with  the  utmost  care,  in  the  contemplation 
of  this  great  event,  is  the  feeling  of  solemnity 
and   reverence;    and    this   is   promoted   by  the 


64  The  Evidential  Value 

manner  in  which  the  Lord  manifested  Himself 
after  the  Resurrection  to  St.  Peter  and  a  chosen 
few.  Provision  has  been  made,  not  only  for 
our  belief  in  the  Resurrection,  but  for  our  think- 
ing of  it  in  the  right  manner:  and  this  fact 
has,  to  the  Christian  mind,  a  strong  evidential 
force. 

The  four  instances  of  testimony  to  Christ's 
Resurrection,  selected  from  St.  Paul's  life,  may 
be  more  rapidly  enumerated;  and  a  rapid  enu- 
meration brings  all  the  more  distinctly  to  view 
the  extraordinary  variety  of  scene  and  circum- 
stance in  the  midst  of  which  this  unwavering 
testimony  is  consistently  traced. 

First  there  is  the  witness  in  the  synagogue 
of  Antioch  in  Pisidia,  a  country  town  in  the 
centre  of  Asia  Minor.  After  a  historical  and 
prophetical  preamble,  similar  to  that  in  St.  Ste- 
phen's speech  (and  we  must  remember  that  he 
had  heard  that  speech)  the  Resurrection  of 
Christ  is  the  point  to  which  St.  Paul  steadily 
works  onward.  He  quotes  the  same  Psalm 
which  St.  Paul  quoted  at  Pentecost.  This 
too   is    a    correspondence   to   be   well    marked. 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  65 

He  puts  in  sharp  contrast  before  his  hearers 
what  man  had  done  in  regard  to  Christ,  and 
what  God  had  done.  "When  they  had  ful- 
filled all  that  was  written  of  Him,  they  took 
Him  down  from  the  tree  and  laid  Him  in  a 
sepulchre:  but  God  raised  Him  from  the  dead 
the  promise  that  was  made  unto  the  fathers, 
God  hath  fulfilled  the  same  unto  us  their  chil- 
dren, in  that  He  hath  raised  up  Jesus  again." 
We  should  observe  too  how  he  says:  "He  was 
seen  many  days  of  them  which  came  up  with 
Him  from  Galilee  to  Jerusalem,  who  are  His 
witnesses  unto  the  people."  This  mention  of 
Galilee  is  significant,  as  we  shall  see  after- 
wards. He  knits  here  his  testimony  with 
theirs :  and  in  so  doing  (we  may  lawfully 
add)  he  knits  together  the  Acts  and  the 
Epistles. 

The  seventeenth  chapter  of  this  book  con- 
tains two  very  marked  and  two  very  distinct 
examples  of  St.  Paul's  testimony  to  the  Resur- 
rection. At  Thessalonica  the  occasion  was 
perhaps  not  very  different  from  that  which 
has  been  noticed  at  Antioch  in  Pisidia.  The 
5 


66  The  Evidential  Value 

scene  to  which  our  attention  is  called  is  still 
a  synagogue.  The  place,,  however,  and  the 
character  of  the  population  by  which  St.  Paul 
is  now  surrounded,  is  very  different.  He  has 
now  crossed  from  Asia  into  Europe:  the  great 
council  and  the  public  meeting  with  St.  Peter 
have  taken  place;  and  he  is  now  in  a  great  em- 
porium of  commerce  by  the  sea.  Still  we  ob- 
serve that  his  testimony  is  unchanged  and 
unwavering.  Still  it  is  the  Resurrection  of 
Christ  which  gives  living  power  to  his  words, 
bringing  to  conversion  those  who  were  after- 
wards addressed  in  the  Epistles  to  the  Thes- 
salonians,  and  in  the  case  of  others  resulting  in 
the  persecution  which  urged  the  Apostle  on- 
ward to  Berea,  and  thence  to  Athens. 

Turning  now  to  this  new  scene  we  find  our- 
selves entirely  removed  from  the  old  doc- 
trinal ground  which  was  taken  in  addressing 
the  Jews.  The  Apostle's  argument  is  now  not 
theological  but  philosophical.  Still,  however, 
it  is  the  Resurrection  from  the  dead  which  "in 
the  market  place"  causes  the  commotion  in 
the  minds  of  the  Stoics  and  Epicureans.     "  He 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  67 

seemeth  to  be  a  setter-forth  of  strange  gods, 
because  he  preached  unto  them  Jesus  and  the 
Resurrection."  Still  it  is  the  same  topic  which 
closes  the  great  speech  on  Areopagus.  "God 
hath  appointed  a  day  in  the  which  He  will 
judge  the  world  in  righteousness  by  that  Man 
whom  He  hath  ordained,  whereof  He  hath 
given  assurance  unto  all  men,  in  that  He  hath 
raised  Him  from  the  dead — and  when  they 
heard  of  the  Resurrection  of  the  dead,  some 
mocked;  and  others  said,  We  will  hear  thee 
again  of  this  matter." 

The  last  selected  occasion  is  that  on  which 
Paul  stood  before  Festus  and  Agrippa.  It  is 
very  startling  to  think  of  him  as  proclaiming 
before  the  Roman  Governor  the  Resurrection 
of  one  whom  Pilate,  that  officer's  predecessor, 
had  crucified.  Contrast  does  indeed  here  form 
a  vivid  connection  between  the  Gospels  and 
the  Acts.  Leaving  on  one  side  all  that  was 
especially  addressed  to  Agrippa  regarding  the 
Resurrection,  let  us  pass  at  once  to  the  culmi- 
nating point  of  the  speech:  "  Having  obtained 
help  of  God    I    continue   unto   this   day,   wit- 


68  The  Evidential  Value 

nessing  both  to  small  and  great,  that  Christ 
should  suffer  and  that  He  should  be  the 
first  that  should  rise  from  the  dead."  At 
this  point  occurs  the  sudden  incredulous  in- 
terruption of  Festus :  "  Paul,  thou  art  be- 
side thyself:  much  learning  hath  made  thee 
mad" — with  the  Apostle's  famous  reply:  "I 
am  not  mad,  most  noble  Festus,  but  speak 
forth  the  words  of  truth  and  soberness."  The 
Roman  officer  could  not  understand  St.  Paul's 
enthusiasm  or  his  belief  in  the  Resurrection. 
What,  however,  is  especially  suggested  to  us 
at  this  point  is  the  combination  of  this  en- 
thusiastic belief  with  the  utmost  sobriety  of 
character.  No  one  can  study  the  records  of 
St.  Paul's  life  without  observing  his  strong 
good  sense  and  his  freedom  from  fanaticism. 
That  to  such  a  man  faith  in  Christ's  Resur- 
rection should  have  been  the  living  power 
which  moved  and  directed  his  conduct  is  a 
fact    to   arrest  any  thoughtful  mind. 

But,  to  return  to  the  remark  made  above, 
what  a  variety  of  incident  is  here  !  what  a  suc- 
cession of  scenes  and  persons  to  stimulate  our 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  69 

thought !  what  an  animated  and  diversified 
history !  Yet  how  strong  and  fresh  flows  the 
stream  of  steady  and  uniform  assertion  of  the 
Resurrection  of  Christ  !  And  is  it  not  quite 
evident  that  both  Apostles  attested  what  they 
personally  knew  to  be  true ;  one  from  what  he 
had  personally  seen,  the  other  from  what  eye- 
witnesses had  told  him  ?  The  evidence  is  con- 
temporary. On  the  edge  of  this  stream  of  tes- 
timony we  find  ourselves  in  all  varieties  of 
scenery :  but  the  living  stream  that  flows  past 
is  one. 

Some  have  laboriously  brought  together  all 
the  tendencies  of  thought,  the  accidental  move- 
ments of  opinion,  the  inevitable  social  changes, 
which  before  the  close  of  the  second  century 
combined  in  forming  Christianity  and  the  Chris- 
tian Church.  There  is  no  reason  to  deny  these 
tendencies  or  the  reality  of  these  progressive 
changes.  But  add  them  all  together:  and  they 
do  not  explain  Christianity  and  the  Church. 
The  living  power  is  wanting.  As  well  might 
we  explain  physical  life  by  enumerating  and 
describing  gelatine  and  fibrine,  lime  and  oxy- 


yo  The  Evidential  Value 

gen,  and  the  like.  These  ingredients  are  there, 
with  the  laws  which  operate  on  them  and  con- 
trol them;  but  all  together  they  do  not  make 
the  living  man:  something  is  still  wanting 
which  baffles  science.  So  it  is  here  with  the 
criticism  which  leaves  out  the  Resurrection. 
It  can  analyze  the  ingredients:  but  it  cannot 
explain  the  life.  It  seems  to  .me,  too,  that 
this  fresh  early  spirit  of  strong  belief,  which 
we  have  seen  alike  in  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul, 
could  not  have  been  represented  naturally  by 
a  late  compiler  or  by  an  inventor.  It  would 
have  been-  impossible  either  to  have  forged  it 
or  reproduced  it.  The  very  manner  in  which 
the  Resurrection  was  proclaimed  joins  togeth- 
er by  an  indissoluble  bond  the  Acts  and  the 
Gospels. 

As  we  have  moved  back  already  from  the 
Ascension  to  the  Resurrection,  so  let  us  now 
move  back  from  the  Resurrection  to  the  earthly 
life,  to  the  works  and  words  of  Christ.  For 
this  purpose  we  may  be  content  to  fix  our  po- 
sition in  one  single  place.  We  will  take  our 
stand  upon  the  narrative  of  the  Conversion  of 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  yi 

Cornelius,  and  limit  ourselves  to  that  ground. 
Previously — in  the  last  lecture — we  took  a  sur- 
vey of  this  ground  in  its  tendency  to  establish 
the  artless  veracity  of  the  Acts.  Now  I  in- 
vite attention  to  it  for  a  different  reason.  I 
think  I  see  in  this  section  of  the  history  three 
places  of  close  organic  connection  between  the 
Acts  and  the  Gospel-events.  They  are  all 
parts  of  the  living  experience  of  St.  Peter: 
which  indeed  is  precisely  what  we  should  look 
for.  We  should  perhaps  hardly  expect  any 
evidence  of  this  kind  in  connection  with  St. 
Paul.  He  had  never  lived  with  Christ.  But 
with  Peter  personal  memories  of  the  Lord  must 
have  been  ever  in  his  mind;  and  we  are  in- 
stinctively prepared  for  indications  of  them 
to  appear.  The  order  in  which  we  consider 
these  three  indications  is  of  little  moment.  I 
will  take  the  earliest  first,  then  the  latest,  then 
the  intermediate  one. 

Our  Lord  once  spoke  a  parable  to  this  ef- 
fect: "  Not  that  which  entereth  into  a  man, 
by  his  mouth,  defileth  him:  but  that  which 
cometh    from    within,    out    of  the    heart,    that 


J 2  The  Evidential  Value 

defileth  the  man."  We  know  the  meaning  of 
this  parable,  as  regards  the  superstition  of 
mere  outward  things  on  the  one  hand,  and 
the  terrible  pollution  of  sin  in  the  heart  on 
the  other.  But  the  parable  has  a  wide  range 
beyond  the  mere  individual,  and  lays  dchvn 
the  broad  universal  basis  upon  which  religious 
communion  in  the  Church  of  Christ  is  built. 
In  our  general  recollection  of  the  parable  there 
is  nothing  to  associate  it  specially  with  Peter, 
or  to  suggest  any  intimate  link  here  between 
the  Gospels  and  the  Acts.  But  on  reading 
carefully  we  soon  see  its  personal  connection 
with  this  Apostle;  and  critical  inquiry  reveals 
the  link  which  in  this  place  connects  the 
Gospels  and  the  Acts. 

Both  St.  Matthew  and  St.  Mark  tell  us  that 
the  disciples  afterwards  privately  asked  the 
meaning  of  the  parable.  But  one  of  them  in- 
forms us  of  the  place  where  this  conversation 
occurred;  the  other  tells  us  who  asked  the 
question  that  led  to  Christ's  answer.  St.  Mat- 
thew says  that  it  was  "  when  He  was  entered 
into  the  house  from  the  people"  that  this  pri- 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  73 

vate  conversation  took  place.  That  was  the 
house  of  Simon  and  Andrew.  But  St.  Mark 
tells  us  (observe  that  it  is  St.  Mark)  of  some- 
thing more  definite  and  personal.  "Peter  said 
unto  Him,  Declare  unto  us  this  parable."  Pe- 
ter, as  usual,  is  ready  with  his  words;  and  while 
honestly,  doubtless,  eager  for  instruction,  is 
impetuous  and  impatient.  We  may  thank  him 
for  this  eagerness  and  impetuosity,  for  it  has 
brought  down  to  us  from  that  conversation 
at  Capernaum  the  most  solemn  of  all  warnings, 
that  foul  desires,  which  come  from  within,  de- 
file us  morally  and  spiritually. 

Here  is  the  connection  with  St.  Peter:  and 
even  this  is  a  bond  between  the  Acts  and  the 
Gospels;  for  we  have  thus  vividly  before  us  the 
personality  of  the  man  who  was  appointed  to 
secure  the  conversion  of  Cornelius.  But  exact 
criticism  reveals  to  us,  in  this  conversation 
at  Capernaum,  a  distinct  organic  connection 
with  that  great  subsequent  occurrence.  For 
according  to  the  true  reading  of  the  manu- 
scripts, what  St.  Mark  adds  at  the  close  of  this 
Gospel   story  is   as   follows:   "This   He   said — 


74  The  Evidential  Value 

this  the  Lord  said — cleansing  all  meats — pro- 
nouncing all  meats  pure."  It  was  an  anticipa- 
tion— a  strictly  verbal  anticipation — of  what 
was  said  at  Joppa — "What  the  Lord  hath 
cleansed,  that  call  not  thou  common."  We 
often  blame  the  critics;  but  we  have  frequently 
good  reason  to  thank  them.  The  fact  of  the 
true  reading  may  be  stated  very  confidently. 
And  can  we  doubt  that  a  remembrance  of  his 
Lord's  words  came  into  St.  Peter's  mind  in  con- 
nection with  the  case  of  Cornelius,  if  not  with 
the  flash  of  a  sudden  conviction,  yet  with  a 
gradual  and  in  the  end  irresistible  persuasion, 
during  the  vision  at  Joppa,  or  in  conversation 
at  Caesarea  ?  The  Lord  had  spoken  the  words 
in  answer  to  a  pointed  question.  The  question 
too  had  been  asked  by  himself.  It  had  been 
asked  too  and  answered  in  that  house,  which  had 
been  familiar  to  him  from  early  days,  and  which 
must  ever  have  seemed  full  of  the  presence 
and  instruction  of  Christ.  We  should  note, 
too,  that  the  identical  Greek  word  for  cleans- 
ing, or  declaring  pure,  is  employed  in  the 
two  cases.     Finally  we  must  observe  that  this 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  7$ 

general  remark  concerning  the  Lord's  mean- 
ing in  the  parable  is  found  in  St.  Mark,  in 
that  Evangelist  who  was  termed  in  the  early 
Church  "the  interpreter  of  Peter."  In  order 
to  establish  quite  confidently  the  reality  of 
this  connection,  we  have  only,  it  seems  to 
me,  to  take  into  account  the  ordinary  laws  and 
operations  and  associations  of  human  thought. 
And  yet  the  connection  is  delicate  and  subtle, 
not  likely  to  have  come  into  existence  in  the 
development  of  a  vague  late  tradition;  and 
not  likely  to  have  been  the  invention  of  a 
forger;  for  a  forger  thinks  of  that  which  is 
palpable  and  obviously  adapted  to  strike  his 
reader  immediately. 

I  now  turn  to  a  second  bond  of  connection 
between  this  part  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
and  passages  of  the  Gospel  history.  In  one  por- 
tion of  the  narrative  of  the  Conversion  of  Cor- 
nelius St.  Peter  distinctly  says  that  he  went 
through  a  conscious  reminiscence.  When  the 
crisis  came,  when  the  Holy  Ghost  fell  upon 
those  who  were  assembled  in  the  house  of 
Cornelius,  "  then,"  says   Peter  to  the  Apostles 


y6  The  Evidential  Value 

and  Elders,  before  whom  he  is  defending  him- 
self, "then  remembered  I  the  word  of  the  Lord, 
how  He  said,  John  indeed  baptized  with  water: 
but  ye  shall  be  baptized  with  the  Holy  Ghost." 
I  referred  in  my  last  lecture  to  this  artless 
statement  of  a  conscious  reminiscence  as  an 
indication  of  natural  truthfulness  in  the  history 
of  the  Acts.  Now  I  refer  to  it  for  a  different 
reason,  for  the  purpose  of  calling  attention  to 
the  fact  that  we  here  have  a  specimen  of 
natural  organic  connection,  so  to  speak,  be- 
tween the  Acts  and  the  Gospels.  It  is  true 
indeed  that  the  words  most  nearly  resembling 
those  which  St.  Peter  says  that  he  remembered 
on  this  occasion,  are  found  in  the  first  chapter 
of  the  Acts  themselves.  But  other  words, 
nearly  identical,  were  spoken  by  our  Lord  on 
other  occasions.  One  part  of  His  training  was 
clearly  to  connect  in  the  minds  of  the  disciples 
the  remembrance  of  John  the  Baptist  and  the 
expectation  of  Pentecost.  Thus  we  are  at  this 
point,  so  to  speak,  on  a  line  of  communication 
which  runs  through  more  parts  than  one  of  the 
Gospels  and  more  parts  than  one  of  the  Acts. 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  J  J 

But  I  am  especially  laying  stress  here  on 
the  value  of  this  personal  reminiscence,  as  es- 
tablishing a  link  of  biographical  connection  be- 
tween these  two  parts  of  the  New  Testament. 
There  is  something  wonderfully  vivid  in  Peter's 
account  of  his  recollection.  We  call  to  mind 
indeed  what  St.  Paul  said  at  Miletus  of  ''re- 
membering the  word  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  how 
He  said,  It  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to 
receive."  But  there  is  a  difference  in  the 
tone  and  feeling  of  the  two  occurrences;  and 
I  think  it  is  easy  to  see  in  the  one  case 
and  not  in  the  other  the  direct  action  of 
personal  memory.  St.  Paul  quotes  what  had 
been  related  to  him.  St.  Peter  gives  the 
words  which  his  own  ears  had  heard.  The 
Apostles  too,  who  were  listening  to  him, 
had  heard  the  same  words  spoken.  The  ar- 
gument must  thus  have  been  of  the  weigh- 
tiest kind ;  and  it  had  an  immediate  effect. 
How  far  this  kind  of  reference  to  the  past  is 
likely  to  have  been  introduced  into  a  document 
not  authentic,  I  must  ask  thoughtful  men  to 
judge.     To  my  mind  what  we   read   here   has 


78  The  Evidential  Value 

an  air  of  thorough  reality  and  naturalness;  so 
that  I  see  before  me  here  a  rivet,  so  to  speak, 
strong  and  unmovable  between  the  Gospels 
and  the  Acts. 

In  this  instance  St.  John  the  Baptist  is 
named.  So  it  is  in  the  third  instance,  to 
which  I  now  turn.  I  shall  have  occasion  to 
revert  to  the  Baptist  again,  before  the  con- 
clusion of  this  lecture.  Let  me  ask  attention 
to  the  words  which  Peter  is  recorded  to  have 
addressed  to  Cornelius:  "That  word  ye  know, 
that  went  through  all  Judea,  beginning  from 
Galilee,  after  the  baptism  which  John  preached, 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  how  God  anointed  Him 
with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  power,  who 
went  about  doing  good.  .  .  .  and  we  are  wit- 
nesses of  those  things."  "  Who  went  about  doing 
good!"  There  is  extraordinary  beauty  in  this 
phrase;  and  note  that  it  is  Peter  who  uses  it — ■ 
Peter,  who  had  been  with  Jesus  from  the  first. 
Peter,  who  saw  all  those  Galilean  miracles.  I 
do  not  think  that  St.  Paul  would  have  said  pre- 
cisely this.  We  should  hardly  expect  it  from 
him;  for  he  had  not  lived  day  by  day  in  perso- 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  yg 

nal  intercourse  with  Christ.  Just  so  I  do  not 
think  St.  Paul  would  have  written  what  we  find 
in  St.  Peter's  first  epistle:  "  Whom  not  having 
seen  ye  love."  Peter  had  seen  and  had  heard, 
while  in  both  cases  he  is  addressing  those  who 
had  not  seen  and  heard.  In  each  case  the 
language  is  perfectly  true  to  nature.  In  each 
case  our  confidence  grows  as  we  read  and 
study.  In  each  case  Palestine  is  the  truthful 
background  of  what  is  immediately  before  us. 
In  the  instance  under  our  particular  considera- 
tion here,  there  is  both  the  charm  of  surprise, 
and  the  suggestion  of  most  solemn  thought. 
We  perceive  how  Capernaum  connects  itself 
by  a  Divine  prearrangement  with  Caesarea. 

I  believe  we  might  follow  the  same  method 
of  inquiry  further  and  find  other  examples  of 
visible  association  with  the  Gospel-time,  even 
if  we  were  to  limit  ourselves  to  the  occurrences 
connected  with  Cornelius.  Does  it  not  natu- 
rally strike  us  that  in  what  was  said  and  done 
in  reference  to  the  centurion  at  Capernaum 
there  was  an  anticipation  of  certain  things  that 
regard  the  centurion  at  Caesarea,  and  a  latent 


80  The  Evidential  Value 

instruction  likely  to  revive  in  St.  Peter's  mind  ? 
Prejudices  are  not  easily  loosened;  but  they 
may  be  loosened  gradually  and  imperceptibly, 
and  preparation  may  be  made  long  beforehand 
for  a  change  of  mind  and  conduct  very  decided, 
when  it  comes.  It  is  difficult  to  believe  that 
St.  Peter  can  have  been  brought  to  his  con- 
clusion at  Caesarea  without  calling  to  mind 
the  centurion  whose  servant  was  healed  at  Ca- 
pernaum. The  admirable  character  of  the  two 
men  must  have  produced  similar  impressions 
upon  his  mind.  The  testimony,  too,  of  the 
Jews  was  remarkably  similar  in  the  two  cases. 
In  the  former  instance  they  besought  the  Lord 
earnestly  that  He  would  grant  the  centurion's 
request,  "  saying  that  he  was  worthy  for  whom 
He  should  do  this;  for  he  loveth  our  nation, 
and  hath  built  us  a  synagogue."  In  the  latter 
instance  the  messengers  who  came  from  Caesa- 
rea to  Joppa  bear  testimony  to  Peter  that 
Cornelius  is  "a  just  man,  and  one  that  fear- 
eth  God,  and  of  a  good  report  among  all  the 
nation  of  the  Jews."  Nothing  could  be  more 
likely  to  prepare  Peter  for  the  work  which  he 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 


was  destined  to  do  afterwards  at  Caesarea  than 
the  occurrence  which  took  place  at  Caper- 
naum. He  had  heard  his  Lord  say  of  a  hea- 
then soldier  that  "  He  had  not  found  so  great 
faith,  no,  not  in  Israel,  and  that  many  should 
come  from  the  East  and  West,  and  sit  down 
with  Abraham  and  Isaac  and  Jacob,  in  the 
kingdom  of  God."  And  now  the  Lord  had 
taught  him,  through  the  operation  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  and  through  providential  guiding, 
what  these  words  meant  for  the  whole  world; 
choosing  him  as  the  instrument  for  beginning 
the  great  change  in  the  history  of  mankind. 
But  I  pass  now  to  another  of  those  inter- 
connections between  the  Gospels  and  the  Acts 
of  the  Apostles,  which  are  not  very  obtrusive 
at  first  sight,  but  which,  when  observed,  have 
an  argumentative  value  in  such  an  inquiry  as 
the  present.  I  find  this  in  the  frequent  men- 
tion of  Galilee  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  Acts 
of  the  Apostles,  and  in  the  manner  of  its  men- 
tion. Even  St.  Paul  names  Galilee  when  ad- 
dressing the  Jews  in  the  synagogue  at  Antioch 
in  Pisidia;  and  this,  I  think,  is  worthy  of  ob- 
6 


82  The  Evidential  Value 

servation.  "God  raised  Him  from  the  dead; 
and  He  was  seen  many  days  of  them  which 
came  up  with  Him  f?-om  Galilee  to  Jerusalem; 
who  are  His  witnesses  unto  the  people."  There 
is  an  echo  of  the  Gospel-time  in  this  mention 
of  Galilee:  and  occurring,  as  it  does,  in  a 
speech  by  St.  Paul  in  Asia  Minor,  it  is,  as  I 
have  said,  worthy  of  observation.  Probably 
up  to  this  time  he  had  had  very  little  to  do 
with  Galilee.  Afterwards,  indeed,  he  was  in 
its  close  neighborhood,  when  he  spent  two 
years  at  Csesarea,  and  then  it  is  quite  possi- 
ble that  he  cooperated  with  Luke  in  gather- 
ing together  notices  of  Gospel  incidents  con- 
nected with  Galilee;  but  that  part  of  this 
Apostle's  life  was  not  yet  come.  Thus  this 
local  framing  of  his  Gospel  instruction  is  re- 
markable; and  I  think  we  do  not  transgress 
the  bounds  of  reasonable  speculation,  if  we  fan- 
cy that  we  see  here  a  result  of  that  early  fort- 
night, spent  in  close  communion  by  St.  Paul 
and  St.  Peter  together,  of  which  I  have  spoken 
above.  Certainly  they  conversed  of  the  Res- 
urrection.    Certainly  they  conversed  of  Galilee. 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  83 

With  St.  Peter  himself  the  reminiscence 
of  Galilee  was  the  most  intimate  kind  that 
is  possible.  The  local  influences  that  sur- 
rounded him  from  the  first,  the  character 
that  originally  belonged  to  him,  were  Gali- 
lean. His  early  training  too,  under  Christ, 
was  in  Galilee.  There  he  had  learned  to 
know  and  love  his  Master.  There  he  had 
listened  to  His  discourses.  There  he  had  been 
a  witness  of  His  miracles.  Part  of  his  Master's 
reproach  too,  which  it  was  his  glory  to  bear, 
was  connected  with  this  despised  region.  If 
the  proud  question  was  asked:  "Doth  Christ 
come  out  of  Galilee  ?  "  it  was  natural  that  the 
disciple  should  be  asked:  "Art  thou  also  of 
Galilee?"  This  being  so,  it  is  interesting  and 
important  to  observe  how  the  remembrance 
of  Galilee  colors  both  the  later  associations 
of  Peter  with  Christ  in  the  Gospel-time,  and 
also  the  earlier  parts  of  the  Apostolic  history 
— for  consistency  between  these  two  consecu- 
tive parts  of  the  New  Testament  is  confirmed 
by  the  continuous  and  natural  use  of  a  geo- 
graphical  term.     This  mark   is   indelibly  fixed 


84  The  Evidential  Value 

on  the  sad  story  of  the  denial:  "Thou  art  a 
Galilean:  thy  speech  betrayeth  thee."  The 
same  allusion  is  mingled  with  the  joy  of  the 
Resurrection:  "Tell  His  disciples  and  Peter, 
that  He  goeth  before  you  into  Galilee."  The 
renewed  lesson  drawn  from  the  fisherman's 
craft,  the  command  to  feed  the  sheep  and 
lambs  of  Christ,  were  given  in  Galilee.  And 
turning  now  to  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  we 
find  Galilee  made  conspicuous  at  three  very 
marked  moments  of  St.  Peter's  life;  and,  we 
may  add,  made  naturally  conspicuous,  with- 
out any  suspicion  of  ingenious  design.  On 
Mount  Olivet  when  the  disciples  are  gazing 
upward,  the  words  of  the  angel  are,  "Ye 
men  of  Galilee,  why  stand  ye  gazing  up  into 
heaven  ! "  How  these  words  seem  to  con- 
nect together  this  great  consummation  with 
the  early  days  of  Bethsaida  and  Cana  !  At 
the  outpouring  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  ex- 
clamation was,  "Are  not  all  these  which 
speak  Galileans  ? "  And  now  again,  at  the 
other  great  critical  moment  of  Peter's  mission 
to   the  world,  he  sets  the  Gospel  before   Cor- 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  85 

nelius  as  "  the  word  which  was  published 
,  throughout  all  Judea,  and  began  from  Galilee" 
It  seems  to  us  that  it  was  hardly  needful  to 
have  named  Galilee  on  this  occasion;  but  the 
old  days  came  back  upon  Peter's  memory  as 
he  spoke,  and  he  could  not  omit  the  allusion, 
when  speaking  of  Him  "who  went  about  doing 
good."  At  the  second  Pentecost,  as  at  the 
first,  the  speaker  who  stands  before  us  is  still 
"the  pilot  of  the  Galilean  lake."  We  must  not 
exaggerate  the  importance  of  a  consistency 
of  this  kind.  Its  argumentative  value  consists 
partly  in  the  fact  that  it  is  very  natural,  and 
partly  in  its  power  of  easy  combination  with 
other  evidences  of  the  same  kind.  This  re- 
mark too  may  be  permitted,  that  in  the  Apoc- 
ryphal Acts  there  is  apt  to  be  a  hierarchical 
complexion,  corresponding  with  the  late  date 
at  which  they  were  composed,  whereas  we 
have  here  blowing  over  us  the  fresh  healthy 
air  of  the  early  companionship  with  Jesus. 

Another  very  important  subject  in  the  in- 
terlacing, so  to  speak,  of  the  Acts  with  the 
Epistles,   is   the  occurrence   of  the  mention  of 


86  The  Evidential  Value 

John  the  Baptist.  If  the  name  of  that  Great 
Forerunner  of  Christ  had  not  occurred  at  all 
in  the  Book  of  the  Acts,  such  a  circumstance 
might  have  been  suspicious.  And  yet  now 
that  these  preparatory  days  are  over,  and  the 
Gospel  is  entering  upon  its  mature  mission, 
a  too  prominent  mention  of  the  Baptist  might 
in  another  way  have  excited  suspicion.  In 
this  matter  again  we  must  take  into  account 
the  words  both  of  St.  Peter  and  of  St.  Paul. 
The  grand  shadow  of  the  Baptist  is  thrown 
over  the  whole  range  of*  the  Acts  of  the  Apos- 
tles. As  to  the  mention  of  the  Great  Fore- 
runner in  connection  with  St.  Paul's  life  and 
work,  two  circumstances  are  worthy  of  re- 
mark, because  they  are  perfectly  natural.  It 
was  probable,  from  the  character  and  noto- 
riety of  John's  preaching,  that  traces  of  his 
discipleship  would  be  found  in  distant  places, 
affected  partly  by  the  return  of  pilgrims  who 
had  heard  him  in  Palestine,  partly  by  the  dif- 
fusion of  his  influence  through  intermediate 
channels.  And  this  we  do  find,  and  in  places 
very  likely  for  such  discipleship  to  be   promi- 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  87 

nent,  namely  in  Alexandria  and  Ephesus.  We 
remember  how  Apollos,  who  came  from  the 
former  place,  "knew  only  the  baptism  of 
John,"  and  how,  when  more  fully  instructed 
by  St.  Paul's  friends,  Aquila  and  Priscilla,  he 
passed  on  to  Corinth,  to  exercise  a  most  useful 
ministry  there.  We  remember  too  how  Paul 
himself  soon  afterwards  encountered  at  Ephe- 
sus "  certain  disciples,"  as  they  are  termed, 
who  "knew  only  John's  baptism."  All  this 
is  perfectly  natural;  and  just  so  far  it  tends  to 
bind  together  the  Acts  and  the  Gospels,  that 
we  find  in  the  Gospels  the  explanation  of 
what  we  read  here  in  the  Acts.  The  other 
point  of  interest  is  this,  that  when  St.  Paul, 
names  this  subject,  he  employs  his  own  char- 
acteristic style.  He  is  well  acquainted  with 
the  Mission  of  John  the  Baptist,  he  knows  the 
Gospel  in  its  prelude,  and  of  this  prelude  he 
apprehends  the  full  importance.  The  Bap- 
tist's Mission  is  part  of  his  teaching,  when 
he  speaks  to  unconverted  Jews.  We  should 
hardly  expect  this  topic  to  appear  in  his  Epis- 
tles written   to  organized   Christian   Churches. 


88  The  Evidential  Value 

But  in  the  synagogue  at  Antioch  in  Pisidia 
he  opens  the  Gospel-message  thus:  "  God  ac- 
cording to  His  promise  hath  raised  unto  Israel 
a  Saviour,  Jesus,  whom  John  had  preached 
before  his  coming  the  baptism  of  repentance 
to  all  the  people  of  Israel."  But,  as  I  have 
said,  St.  Paul  uses  here  his  characteristic  style. 
"As  John  fulfilled  his  course,  he  said,  whom 
think  ye  that  I  am  ?  I  am  not  He.  But  be- 
hold there  cometh  One  after  me,  whose  shoes 
of  His  feet  I  am  not  worthy  to  loose."  "As 
Jo  Jin  fulfilled  his  course!'  It  is  a  metaphor 
from  the  footrace  in  the  Greek  games.  This  is 
his  way  of  expressing  energy,  directness  and 
perseverance.  It  is  just  the  language  which 
he  uses  of  himself,  both  elsewhere  in  the  Acts 
and  in  the  Epistles.  "I  count  not  my  life 
dear  unto  myself,  that  I  might  finish  my  course 
with  joy";  and  again — "/  have  finished  my 
course:  I  have  kept  the  faith."  It  is  most  in- 
teresting thus  to  see  blended  together  the 
lively  imagery  of  the  Greek  games  and  the 
very  words  uttered  in  the  wilderness  and  by 
the   banks    of   the   Jordan — to   see    the    Great 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  89 


Forerunner  and   the  Apostle   of  the   Gentiles, 
as  it  were,  side  by  side. 

In  Peter's  reference  to  John  the  Baptist  the 
interest  is  of  a  different  kind.  In  this  case 
there  is  the  freshness  of  a  personal  recollec- 
tion. "  Then  remembered  I  the  word  of  the 
Lord,  how  He  said,  John  indeed  baptized 
with  water :  but  ye  shall  be  baptized  with  the 
Holy  Ghost."  He  describes  his  own  state  of 
mind.  Paul  could  not  have  said  this.  He 
had  not  heard  what  Christ  the  Lord  said 
of  John :  and  at  Antioch  in  Pisidia  he  was 
addressing  those  who  had  not  directly  heard, 
though  the  fame  of  John  the  Baptist  had 
reached  them.  Just  so  there  is  the  life  of 
a  personal  recollection  in  the  words  used  to 
Cornelius:  "That  word  ye  know,  which  was 
published  throughout  all  Judea,  and  began 
from  Galilee,  after  the  baptism  which  John 
preached!'  I  have  already  remarked  on  this 
sentence  as  regards  the  mention  of  Galilee. 
Now  let  us  observe  it  as  regards  the  mention 
of  John  the  Baptist.  If  not  literally  a  dis- 
ciple of  the  Baptist,  it  was  within  the  range 


go  The  Evidential  Value 

of  the  Baptist's  influence,  and  apparently  in 
his  actual  presence,  that  Peter  had  his  first 
interview  with  Christ  and  received  his  new 
name.  Nor  are  these  the  only  instances,  in 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  where  we  find  Peter 
making  allusion  to  those  early  days,  to  which 
his  later  days  were  bound  by  gradually  grow- 
ing and  expanding  experience.  He  says  at 
the  very  outset,  when  a  successor  to  Judas  is 
to  be  chosen:  "  Of  these  men  that  have  com- 
panied  with  us  all  the  time  that  the  Lord 
Jesus  went  in  and  out  among  us,  beginning 
from  the  baptism  of  John,  unto  that  same 
day  that  He  was  taken  up  from  us,  must  one 
be  ordained  to  be  a  witness  with  us  of  the 
resurrection." 

The  retrospect  of  the  Gospel-time,  which, 
standing  on  the  ground  of  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles,  we  have  thus  taken,  from  the  Ascen- 
sion of  Christ  to  the  mission  of  John  the  Bap- 
tist, suggests  a  thought  that  should  be  very 
present  to  our  minds,  when  we  are  consid- 
ering the  relation  of  these  two  portions  of 
our    early    sacred    history.     The    Gospel-time 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  91 

was  a  period  of  training  for  the  Apostles.  This 
fact  gives  to  us  a  principle  of  continuity  of 
which  we  ought  never  to  lose  sight.  With 
this  fact  fresh  in  our  memories  we  trace  con- 
nection in  various  instances  where  otherwise 
it  would  not  be  perceived.  It  is  one  thing 
to  read  the  Gospels,  as  of  course  we  do  read 
them,  for  perpetual  and  direct  instruction ; 
quite  another  thing  to  see  in  the  words  and 
incidents  recorded  there  a  schooling  of  the 
Apostles  for  that  future  work,  select  speci- 
mens of  which  are  given  in  the  Book  of 
Acts.  The  links  which  we  trace  by  this 
method  may,  in  some  cases,  be  minute;  but 
perhaps  they  are  all  the  more  valuable  on 
that  very  account.  They  may  not  be  clear 
to  the  eye  at  first  sight;  but  this  really  en- 
hances their  testimony  if  only  they  are  dis- 
tinctly visible  when  they  are  discovered. 

And  we  observe  that,  on  this  view  of  the 
matter,  Peter  is  the  personal  link  which  chiefly 
binds  together  the  early  part  of  the  Acts  of 
the  Apostles  with  the  Evangelic  history.  This 
must,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  be  so.     Peter 


92  The  Evidential  Value 

is  in  the  Evangelic  record  the  most  conspic- 
uous person  among  the  disciples  of  Christ. 
Whatever  training  the  other  Apostles  received 
was  concentrated,  as  it  were,  in  him.  And  on 
the  other  side,  Peter  is  the  conspicuous  figure 
on  the  canvas  on  all  the  early  part  of  the  Acts 
of  the  Apostles.  The  primitive  formation  of 
the  Church,  so  far  as  it  is  recorded,  is  personi- 
fied, as  it  were,  in  him.  Hence  in  travelling 
along  the  line  of  his  personal  biography  we 
pass  easily  from  the  one  ground  to  the  other. 
Does  not  the  devout  mind  feel  instinctively 
that  we  have  here  the  proofs  both  of  a  natural 
truthfulness  and  of  a  divine  prearrangement  ? 
In  this  way  we  are  led  to  do  more  justice 
to  St.  Peter  than  has  always  been  accorded 
to  him.  In  modern  times,  as  it  seems  to  me, 
the  claims  of  this  great  Apostle  on  our  theo- 
logical and  literary  work  have  been  in  some 
degree  overlooked.  There  was  indeed  a  pe- 
riod, when,  for  long  ages,  Peter  was  placed 
upon  a  solitary  pinnacle  which  he  was  never 
intended  to  occupy.  During  the  last  half  cen- 
tury, throughout  the  Reformed  parts  of  Chris- 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  93 

tendom,  there  have  been  profuse  illustrations 
of  the  life  and  character  and  work  of  St.  Paul. 
Meanwhile  the  life  and  character  and  work  of 
St.  Peter  have  been  somewhat  in  the  shade. 
The  time  seems  now  to  be  come  for  some 
compensation  for  this  comparative  neglect, 
some  correcting  of  this  anomaly.  The  true 
relative  position  of  Peter  and  Paul  is  side  by- 
side;  and  in  no  way  do  we  become  more  con- 
scious of  this  than  when  we  remember  that 
these  two  inspired  men  are  respectively  the 
links  between  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  with 
the  Gospels  on  the  one  side  and  with  the 
Epistles  on  the  other. 

This  leads  to  a  concluding  remark.  I  have 
said  that  the  true  relation  of  Peter  and  Paul 
is  side  by  side.  In  this  book  we  see  them 
placed  thus  together.  One  great  feature  of 
the  Book  of  the  Acts  is  that  it  is  the  meet- 
ing ground  of  these  two  Apostles.  I  spoke 
in  my  last  lecture  of  the  view  held  by  some 
that  there  was  not  only  a  long-continued  an- 
tagonism in  the  Church  between  the  School 
of  St.   Peter  and   the  School  of  St.   Paul,  but 


94  The  Evidential  Value 

a  sharp  antagonism  between  these  two  Apos- 
tles themselves,  and  that  this  book  was  put 
together  at  a  comparatively  late  period  with 
a  partisan  purpose  and  to  indicate  a  sup- 
posed reconciliation.  The  theory  takes  differ- 
ent forms;  or  rather  there  are  more  theories 
than  one,  some  being  contradictions  of  the 
rest.  And  it  seems  to  me  that  it  would  be 
very  easy  to  construct  diverse  theories  of  this 
kind  and  to  put  explanations  on  various  parts 
of  this  book  accordingly.  The  simplest  ex- 
planation, however,  is  the  best.  The  old  true 
representation  of  this  subject  will  live  and 
edify  the  world,  when  a  great  variety  of  new 
speculations  have  had  their  day.  The  result 
of  these  speculations,  and  of  their  conflict 
with  one  another,  will  be  to  make  men 
realize  more  and  more  the  inspired  unity  of 
St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul.  Whatever  antago- 
nism there  may  have  been  among  those  who 
used  their  names,  it  never  had  their  sanction. 
They  meet  in  this  book,  not,  like  Laban  and 
Jacob,  for  a  great  separation,  but  for  perpet- 
ual and  sacred  union.     At  the  Apostolic  Coun- 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  95 

cil,  which  may  be  termed  the  central  place 
in  this  book,  we  see  them  hand  in  hand.' 
They  are  one  in  faith,  one  in  love,  one  in 
mutual  confidence,  one  in  the  proclamation 
of  great  principles.  The  Acts  of  the  Apos- 
tles assert  the  same  unanimity,  as  that  which 
we  find  asserted  in  the  Epistles.  "Whether 
it  were  I  or  they,  so  we  preached  and  so  ye 
believed." 


LECTURE    III. 

The  Book  of  the  Acts  in  Connection 
with  the  Apostolic  Epistles. 


LECTURE    III. 

THE  BOOK  OF  THE  ACTS  IN  CONNECTION 
WITH  THE  APOSTOLIC  EPISTLES. 


TTTTHEN  it  had  been  decided  that  I  was 
to  deliver  these  lectures,  and  I  be- 
gan to  revolve  their  substance  and  arrange- 
ment in  my  mind,  the  thought  of  my  early 
boyhood  came  vividly  over  me.  I  recalled  that 
western  part  of  Yorkshire,  with  its  green  open 
pastures,  its  gray  limestone  cliffs,  its  trout 
streams  and  hazel  woods,  where  I  used  then 
to  live.  And  with  this  memory  fresh  and 
active,  it  seemed  to  me  the  strangest  thing 
in  the  world  that  I  should  be  preparing  to 
lecture  here,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  At- 
lantic. Fifty  years  ago,  when  even  railroads 
were  hardly  known,  the  separation  caused  by 
the   Ocean   had   a  reality,    especially   to    rural 


ioo  The  Evidential  Value 

people,  which  now  has  almost  ceased  to  be 
appreciable. 

Why  do  I  make  this  personal  allusion  ?  Not, 
I  hope,  from  a  feeling"  of  personal  importance, 
as  regards  myself;  but  for  a  good  and  suffi- 
cient reason.  That  village  in  Craven,  the 
western  district  of  Yorkshire,  was  the  native 
place  of  Paley.  Over  those  green  pastures 
he  used  to  wander.  Up  those  limestone  cliffs 
he  used  to  climb.  Those  hazel  woods  and 
trout  streams  were  as  familiar  to  him,  when 
he  was  a  boy,  as  to  me  when  I  was  a  boy. 
His  father  in  extreme  old  age  was  my  fa- 
ther's schoolmaster.  I  was  brought  up,  when 
a  child,  in  the  midst  of  anecdotes  of  Paley 
and  his  family.  It  is  not  then  unnatural  that 
I  should  take  a  peculiar  interest  in  his  works. 

Of  the  three  great  works  of  Paley,  the 
"  Moral  Philosophy,"  the  "  Evidences  of  Chris- 
tianity," and  the  <l  Horas  Paulinae,"  the  last 
mentioned  is  by  far  the  most  original  and 
the  most  permanently  valuable  :  and  it  has  a 
special  value  even  on  this  account,  that  it  is 
eminently   characteristic    of   the    man.     Never 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  ioi 

did  an  author  more  truly  reproduce  himself 
than  Paley  in  this  book.  He  was  singularly 
fond  of  circumstantial  evidence.  When  he  was 
a  young  man,  it  was  his  delight  to  spend  much 
time  in  law  courts,  listening  to  the  cross-ex- 
amination of  witnesses ;  and  the  method  of 
this  book  might  correctly  be  termed  a  cross- 
examination  of  St.  Luke  and  St.  Paul. 

But  again  this  method  of  obtaining  evidence 
never  loses  its  value,  whatever  changes  may 
take  place  in  human  opinion  or  human  sci- 
ence. Other  kinds  of  argument  in  defence  of 
Christianity  are  forced  to  modify  and  adapt 
themselves,  as  the  human  world  advances. 
But  this  method,  in  the  nature  of  the  case, 
can  never  be  obsolete.  Again  some  parts  of 
the  argument  in  the  "  Horae  Paulinas"  maybe 
overstated,  some  may  be  erroneous.  But  this 
does  not  affect  the  rest.  In  certain  modes  of 
argumentation,  if  one  part  is  unsound,  all  the 
remainder  falls  with  it.  Not  so  in  this  case. 
There  may  be  mistakes,  here  and  there,  in 
specimens  brought  forward  as  "  undesigned  co- 
incidences."    But  if  they  fall  prostrate,  the  rest 


102  The  Evidential  Value 

stand  upright.  Moreover  the  example  set  by 
Paley  in  this  work  can  be  imitated,  as  it  has 
been  imitated,  by  others.  It  is  surprising  how 
the  Bible  yields  new  results,  if  this  mode  of 
inquiry  is  applied  to  its  sacred  pages. 

Now  it  is  to  be  observed  that  the  method 
of  the  ''Horse  Paulinae,"  the  search  for  "unde- 
signed coincidences," — i.  e.,  coincidences  that 
tend  to  prove  the  consistency  of  two  things 
which  we  are  comparing,  because  they  are 
true  coincidences,  while  yet  they  have  not 
been  introduced  by  design,  —  this  method  is 
often  applicable  to  the  comparison  of  different 
parts  of  the  same  document,  as  well  as  the  com- 
parison of  documents  of  different  kinds.  Pa- 
ley's  great  task  is  to  compare  the  Epistles  of 
St.  Paul  with  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  so  as 
to  bring  to  view  points  of  agreement,  in  which 
there  is  no  suspicion  of  design,  and  thus  to  es- 
tablish the  independence,  the  authenticity,  and 
the  honesty  of  the  letters  on  the  one  hand, 
and  of  the  history  on  the  other.  But  the  same 
method  might  be  applied  to  different  parts  of 
the    same    letter.     In    this    way,    especially    if 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  103 

the  notices  of  person  and  place  and  circum- 
stances are  abundant  enough  to  give  good 
opportunity,  forgery  can  often  be  detected. 
Paley  himself  deals  in  this  manner  with  the 
Epistle  to  the  Philippians,  as  regards  the  no- 
tice of  Epaphroditus.  How  far  he  is  quite 
successful  in  this  particular  instance  is  a  ques- 
tion which  we  need  not  raise.  I  am  only  il- 
lustrating a  mode  of  procedure. 

This  method  is  similarly  applicable  to  vari- 
ous parts  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  taken 
as  one  document  by  itself,  and  especially  to 
two  parts.  The  earlier  of  these  was  dealt  with 
in  my  first  lecture.  There  are  two  accounts 
of  the  Conversion  of  Cornelius;  and  I  endeav- 
ored to  show  that  in  this  case  we  have  by  no 
means  to  do  with  mere  repetition,  but  that  a 
minute  comparison  made  with  careful  refer- 
ence to  the  circumstances  under  which  the 
two  accounts  are  given,  brings  to  view  latent 
coincidences,  which  have  escaped  the  notice 
of  commentators.  Peter  tells  his  story  un- 
der apologetic  conditions:  and  the  variations 
which   we   find   in   his   story,   while   strictly  in 


104  The  Evidential  Value 

harmony  with  the  other  account,  are  just  such 
as  might  be  expected  to  occur  under  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  case,  while  yet  they  show 
no  trace  of  ingenious  design.  This  tends  to 
give  confidence  in  .that  part  of  the  Acts  of 
the  Apostles.  But  there  is  another  part  of 
the  book,  to  which  the  same  method  is  still 
more  applicable.  There  are  three  accounts 
of  St.  Paul's  Conversion,  one  given  directly  by 
St.  Luke  in  the  ninth  chapter,  the  others  by  St. 
Paul  himself,  as  related  in  the  twenty-second 
and  twenty-sixth  chapters,  under  apologetic 
conditions,  but  conditions  extremely  different 
from  one  another.  Here  then,  in  this  three- 
fold comparison,  we  have  excellent  opportuni- 
ties for  detecting  forgery,  if  forgery  exists,  or 
for  dispersing  the  mists  of  legend,  if  these  ac- 
counts are  legendary.  '  On  the  other  hand,  if 
we  find  variations  in  St.  Paul's  mode  of  tell- 
ing his  story  which  involve  no  inconsistency 
with  one  another,  or  with  St.  Luke's  account, 
while  yet  they  correspond  with  the  character 
of  the  man  and  the  circumstances  in  which 
he    is    placed,    and    while,    at    the    same    time 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  105 


there  is  clearly  no  contrivance  in  these  dif- 
ferences and  resemblances,  then  we  acquire 
great  confidence  in  the  veracity  of  the  book 
which  is  before  us.  Let  us  give  a  short  time 
to  this  analysis,  before  we  proceed  to  the  re- 
marks which  arise  on  a  general  comparison 
of  the  Acts  with  the  Epistles. 

The  first  apologetic  statement  by  St.  Paul 
is  before  an  angry  mob  in  the  Temple  Court 
at  Jerusalem,  the  second*  before  Festus  the 
Governor  and  Herod  Agrippa  II.  In  each 
case  he  is  obliged  to  be  polemical  and  yet 
persuasive.  In  each  case  he  has  to  speak, 
under  difficult  circumstances,  to  hearers  who 
are  not  very  willing  to  be  convinced.  He  him- 
self terms  these  addresses  "defences."  Hence 
we  might  expect  that  on  these  occasions  cer- 
tain things  would  be  omitted,  which,  though 
important  in  the  direct  narrative,  had  at  these 
times  no  apologetic  value;  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  that  certain  things  would  be  added 
likely  to  be  specially  persuasive  to  the  audi- 
ences respectively  addressed.  And  this  we 
find  to  be  the  case.     Thus  it  was  very  impor- 


106  The  Evidential  Value 

tant,  on  both  occasions,  for  St.  Paul  to  point 
out  the  emphatic  nature  of  the  miracle.  Hence 
he  says  that  the  light  which  appeared  to  him 
was  "a  great  light":  he  says  that  it  was 
"about  noon"  — "  at  mid-day" — and  that  it 
exceeded  the  brightness  even  of  the  sun  at 
that  time.  Thus  to  the  fact  that  the  Apostle 
was  speaking  apologetically  on  these  occa- 
sions we  are  indebted  for  some  information  on 
the  subject,  which  otherwise  we  should  not 
possess.  The  omissions  too  in  the  accounts 
given  by  St.  Paul  are  equally  observable.  It 
has  been  correctly  remarked  that  St.  Luke, 
as  is  natural  to  a  physician,  observes  symp- 
toms, as  for  instance  in  the  narrative  of  the 
healing  of  the  lame  man  at  the  Temple  gate, 
and  the  coming  of  blindness  on  Elymas  at 
Paphos.  So,  in  his  history  of  St.  Paul's  Con- 
version, he  mentions  "the  falling,  as  it  were, 
of  scales "  from  the  Apostle's  eyes.  But  it 
would  have  been  beside  the  mark  for  St.  Paul 
to  have  referred  to  this  in  either  speech.  Nor 
would  it  have  been  to  his  purpose  to  have  in- 
troduced the  exact  topographical  details  con- 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  107 

nected  with  his  conversion, — "  the  house  of 
Judas  "  and  the  "Straight  Street," — or  to  have 
mentioned  the  fact  that  he  spent  "three  days" 
without  food,  the  naming  of  which  things  is 
quite  natural  to  the  direct  historian.  It  will 
be  seen  at  once,  I  believe,  that  we  are  here 
on  a  line  of  thought,  which  supplies  a  very 
decisive  test  as  to  the  reality  and  truthfulness 
of  what  we  read  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
concerning  St.  Paul's  Conversion. 

Let  us  now  compare  the  defences  with  one 
another.  Of  course  they  have  the  apologetic 
character  in  common:  and  this  we  have  con- 
sidered. But,  as  I  have  said,  they  were  spo- 
ken under  circumstances  extremely  different. 
If  they  were  true  to  the  circumstances  under 
which  they  are  alleged  to  have  been  uttered, 
and  true  likewise  to  the  character  of  the 
speaker  as  a  man  of  good  judgment  and  fine 
tact,  they  must  exhibit  corresponding  varia- 
tions. Speaking  to  the  angry  Jewish  mob  in 
the  Temple  Court,  it  was  essential  that  St. 
P^ul  should  be  conciliatory,  by  presenting  his 
subject    as    much    as    possible    on    the   Jewish 


io8  The  Evidential  Value 

side,  and  keeping  back  as  long  as  possible 
that  mention  of  the  Gentiles  which  was  pe- 
culiarly offensive  to  them.  This  he  does  with 
remarkable  skill.  He  has  only  a  few  moments 
at  his  disposal,  while  he  keeps  the  mob  at 
bay.  But  he  employs  these  moments  well. 
He  speaks  in  Hebrew:  he  uses  the  most 
acceptable  introduction,  naming  his  hearers 
"brethren  and  fathers":  he  tells  them  that 
he  was  nurtured  in  that  selfsame  Sacred  City, 
Jerusalem,  where  he  is  speaking:  he  tells  them 
that  he  was  educated  by  that  famous  and 
honored  teacher,  Gamaliel.  Were  it  not  for 
this  speech,  we  should  not  have  known  that 
St.  Paul  was  "brought  up"  in  youth  "at  the 
feet  of  Gamaliel."  He  terms  the  law  in  which 
he  had  been  brought  up  "the  law  of  the 
fathers."  When  he  says  that  he  was  formerly 
zealous  in  this  cause,  he  adds  "  as  ye  all  are 
this  day."  He  says  not  simply,  as  St.  Luke 
does,  that  he  asked  for  letters  to  Damascus, 
but  that  he  obtained  them,  and  that  too  (here 
adding  to  St.  Luke)  "from  the  whole  body  of 
the    elders,"    some    of    whom    were    probably 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  109 

present  at  the  moment.  When  he  speaks  of 
the  persecuting"  Jews  at  Damascus,  he  calls 
them  "brethren";  and  of  Ananias  he  does 
not  say  that  he  is  a  Christian  brother  or  a 
Christian  disciple,  but  that  he  is  "  a  man 
pious  according  to  the  Jewish  law":  and  he 
adds,  just  as  the  messengers  to  Peter  made  a 
similar  addition  regarding  Cornelius,  that  ''he 
had  a  good  report  of  all  that  dwelt  there." 
The  coming  of '  Ananias,  and  his  standing 
over  him,  and  his  own  looking  up  into  the 
face  of  the  visitor,  should  be  noted  as  speci- 
mens of  the  vivid  language  of  one  who  is 
telling  his  own  story.  Under  this  head  of 
vivid  reminiscence  may  be  classed  too  the 
instinctive  naming  of  Damascus  four  times  in 
the  speech.  The  words  in  which  Ananias  is 
quoted  as  saying  "  The  God  of  our  fathers 
hath  chosen  thee "  is,  once  more,  an  indica- 
tion of  the  conciliatory  skill  with  which  the 
Apostle  speaks,  as  is  his  withholding  the  ex- 
press mention  of  the  Gentiles,  when  Ananias 
says,  "  Thou  shalt  be  His  witness  unto  all  men!' 
But  especially  we  must   mark  the  introducing 


no  The  Evidential  Value 

of  his  vision  in  the  Temple,  of  which,  but  for 
this  speech,  we  should  have  known  nothing. 
In  that  very  same  sacred  place  where  he  was 
now  standing,  God  had  spoken  to  him  and 
given  him  his  commission  to  "  the  Gentiles." 
At  that  detested  word  the  uproar  began  again, 
and  they  would  hear  him  no  longer.  But  he 
had  gained  his  point.  He  had  told  the  story 
of  his  conversion  to  those  who  were  most  un- 
willing to  listen.  Our  part,  as  critics,  in  the 
scrutiny  of  this  speech,  is  to  observe  how  all 
the  omissions,  the  additions,  the  variations  of 
emphasis,  on  comparison  with  the  direct  nar- 
rative, fit  the  occasion,  and  also  harmonize 
with  what  we  know  from  other  sources  of  St. 
Paul's  versatility,  tact,  and  presence  of  mind. 
If  next  we  turn  to  the  speech  before  Festus 
and  Agrippa,  we  find  the  story  of  his  conver- 
sion told  with  what  might  be  termed  a  strong 
Gentile  coloring;  and  this  was  in  harmony  with 
the  occasion  and  quite  according  to  the  tone 
and  habit  of  St.  Paul's  mind  and  character. 
Here  he  speaks  under  less  constraint  and  with 
no  fear   of  a  violent    interruption.     Hence    he 


of  the  A  cts  of  the  Apostles.  1 1 1 

can  take  a  wider  scope  and  can  dwell  more 
largely  upon  doctrine;  and  this  he  does  ad- 
mirably. A  creed  or  a  catechism  might  be 
constructed  from  this  speech  at  Caesarea.  He 
has  the  religious  interests  of  Festus,  too,  to 
consider;  and  it  is  his  duty  so  to  speak  as  to 
persuade  him,  if  possible,  as  well  as  Agrippa. 
He  appeals  strongly  to  personal  conscience. 
It  is  his  best  policy  to  take  distinctively  Chris- 
tian ground.  •  He  says  at  the  outset  that 
"Jews"  are  his  accusers;  and  he  adds,  in  a 
later  part  of  the  speech,  "for  which  hope's 
sake  I  am  accused  by  Jews"  He  speaks  of 
them  as  hostile  to  him,  not  as  friends.  He 
places  them,  as  it  were,  outside  of  the  posi- 
tion on  which  he  himself  stands.  On  the  other 
hand,  he  does  identify  himself  with  the  Chris- 
tians at  Damascus,  calling  them  "saints": 
and  he  says  that  he  endeavored  to  force  them 
"to  blaspheme."  No  such  language  would 
have  been  possible  before  the  Jewish  mob;  or 
at  least,  if  he  had  used  it,  the  interruption  and 
uproar  would  have  been  hastened.  The  omis- 
sions   too    which    we    observe,    on    comparing 


112  The  Evidential  Value 

this  speech  with  the  other,  are  very  signifi- 
cant, and  thoroughly  in  accord  with  the  con- 
trast of  the  two  occasions.  At  Caesarea  he 
does  not  mention  Ananias  at  all,  on  whom  he 
had  laid  so  much  stress  at  Jerusalem — nor  does 
he  say  any  thing  of  his  own  vision  in  the  Tem- 
ple. The  authority  of  an  obscure  Jew  of  Da- 
mascus could  have  had  no  weight  with  Agrip- 
pa;  and  the  mention  of  a  vision  might  have 
provoked  the  ridicule  of  Festus.-  Throughout 
we  observe  that  the  mission  to  the  Gentiles  is 
made  conspicuous.  And  to  close  this  imperfect 
comparison  of  the  two  speeches  by  noticing 
one  particular,  which  at  first  sight  is  very  triv- 
ial, but  which  really  contains  a  great  deal  of 
evidential  force,  he  says  here  that  the  voice 
on  the  Damascus  road  spoke  to  him  "in  the 
Hebrew  tongue."  He  did  not  state  this  while 
addressing  the  mob  in  the  Temple  Court;  and 
for  two  reasons  this  difference  is  entirely  nat- 
ural. He  was  then  speaking  in  Hebrew :  he 
is  now  speaking  in  Greek. 

Now   this    dissection,    if  I    may  use    such    a 
term,  of  these  parts  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apos- 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  113 

ties,  reveals  the-  lineaments  of  an  internal 
structure,  which  are  not  apparent  on  the  sur- 
face. It  is  like  the  dissection  of  a  leaf,  which 
outwardly  may  seem  very  smooth  and  uniform, 
but  which  within  has  vegetable  fibre  and 
tissue,  delicate  but  systematic,  and  giving 
beauty  and  coherency  to  the  whole.  This 
kind  of  evidence,  too,  if  it  can  be  sustained  in 
fact,  is,  I  imagine,  peculiarly  strong.  This  I 
infer  from  the  determined  way  in  which  it 
is  neglected,  or  only  very  slightly  noticed, 
by  those  who  have  theories  to  construct  re- 
garding the  origin  and  texture  of  the  Acts  of 
the  Apostles.  By  developing  out  of  our  own 
thoughts  a  bold  general  theory  of  the  inten- 
tion of  this  book,  and  by  leaving  out  of  view 
the  minute  evidence  of  the  facts  of  the  case, 
we  might  make  any  thing  of  the  book.  I  will 
give  an  illustration  of  what  I  mean.  One 
writer  (I  am  sorry  to  add  that  he  is  an  Eng- 
lish writer),  assuming  that  the  intention  of 
the  author  of  the  Acts  is  to  establish  for  St. 
Paul  an  honorable  parallelism  with  the  older 
apostles,    says    this :    "  The    personal    appear- 


1 14  The  Evidential  Value 


ance  of  Christ  to  the  older  apostles  being  a 
prominent  feature,"  to  balance  this  "  the  story 
of  the  Conversion  of  St.  Paul  is  related  three 
times."  Now  what  is  the  best  mode  of  deal- 
ing with  a  criticism  of  this  kind  ?  I  imagine 
that  no  plan  is  better  than  to  show,  by  care- 
ful inspection  and  analysis,  that  we  have,  as^ 
a  matter  of  fact,  in  the  case  before  us,  some- 
thing very  much  more  than  a  mere  repetition 
of  the  same  things  for  the  sake  of  emphasis. 
If  indeed  there  were  in  this  instance,  mere 
reiteration  on  the  part  of  St.  Paul,  in  impor- 
tant speeches,  of  a  previous  narrative  of  a 
most  momentous  event,  we  should  have  no 
ground  for  feeling  difficulty  or  for  casting 
any  imputation  upon  the  authenticity  of  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles.  But,  in  truth,  there  is 
much  more  than  reiteration  in  this  case.  The 
same  story  is  indeed  told  more  than  once;  but 
it  is  so  re-told  as  to  have  in  the  re-telling  a 
distinct  relation  with  both  the  speaker  and 
the  audience. 

The  attention  which  we  have  given   to   the 
three  accounts  of  St.  Paul's  Conversion  has  in 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  115 

some  degree  invaded  the  ground  of  the  prop- 
er subject  of  this  lecture,  which  is  the  com- 
parison of  the  Acts  with  the  Epistles,  so  as 
to  mark  their  independence  of  one  another 
and  their  consistency  with  one  another,  and 
hence  the  confirmation  which  each  derives 
from  the  other.  We  have  however  been  strict- 
ly within  the  range  of  the  method  of  the 
"Horae  Paulinas."  And,  after  all,  to  attempt 
to  put  forth  any  thing  like  the  full  details 
of  this  comparison,  would  be  to  repeat  the 
"Horoe  Paulinas"  or  to  give  their  substance 
in  another  form.  To  do  the  first  would  be 
impossible :  and  as  to  the  second  course,  the 
form  of  Paley's  presentation  of  his  subject 
could  riot  possibly  be  improved.  It  seems  best 
to  limit  ourselves  to  some  general  thoughts 
which  arise  on  a  comparison  of  the  Acts  with 
the  Epistles,  taking  the  details  of  the  ques- 
tion for  granted.  It  may  be  hoped  that  most 
of  those  who  read  these  pages  are  well  ac- 
quainted with  the  book  to  which  I  have  made 
such  frequent  allusion. 

As  to  the  action   and  reaction  of  the  Acts 


n6  The  Evidential  Value 

and  Epistles  on  one  another,  and  the  mutual 
confidence,  so  to  speak,  which  results  from 
this  action  and  reaction,  note  how  two  great 
subjects,  which  have  been  before  our  attention, 
in  the  last  lecture  and  in  this,  appear  con- 
sistently in  each.  These  subjects  are  the  Res- 
urrection of  Christ  and  the  Conversion  of  St. 
Paul. 

As  regards  the  former  subject,  the  broad 
fact  is  obvious  that  what  is  conspicuous  in 
the  one  section  of  the  New  Testament  is  con- 
spicuous in  the  other,  and  that  the  same  feel- 
ing in  reference  to  it  is  manifested  in  both. 
Throughout  the  Acts  and  the  Epistles  alike 
faith  in  the  Resurrection  of  Christ  is  an  ever- 
present  practical  force.  It  was  remarked  how 
the  testimony  borne  to  the  Resurrection  and 
the  manner  of  bearing  that  testimony,  both 
by  St.  Paul  and  by  St.  Peter,  constitute  an 
indissoluble  bond  between  the  Acts  and  the 
Gospels.  But  the  same  testimony  of  these 
two  Apostles  moves  on,  with  the  same  vehe- 
ment power  and  life,  through  the  Acts  into  the 
J  fustics.     I  need  only  refer  to  the  opening  of 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  ny 

the  Epistle  to  the  Romans — "Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord,  declared  to  be  the  Son  of  God  with 
power,  according  to  the  Spirit  of  holiness,  by 
the  Resurrection  from  the  dead," — and  to  the 
opening  of  the  first  Epistle  of  Peter — "  Blessed 
be  the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  which  according  to  His  abundant  mercy 
hath  begotten  us  again  unto  a  lively  hope  by 
the  Resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ  from  the  dead." 
And  these  are  only  specimens.  Whatever  ar- 
gument, as  regards  the  unity  of  Scripture,  is 
derivable  from  the  witness  of  these  two  Apos- 
tles to  the  Resurrection  in  the  Acts,  is  very 
much  augmented  in  strength,  when  we  ob- 
serve that  the  witness,  in  force  and  in  char- 
acter, is  precisely  the  same  in  the  Epistles. 
The  cord  is  "  threefold,"  and  "  cannot  easily 
be  broken." 

And  next,  as  regards  St.  Paul's  perpetual 
recollection  of  his  Conversion,  we  have  been 
discussing  the  question  of  reiteration — and  so 
far  he  does  reiterate,  that  he  evidently  desires  to 
express  in  the  most  emphatic  manner  the  fact 
and  the  significance  of  this  great  change.     Just 


Ii8  The  Evidential  Value 

as  he  chose  it  for  his  main  topic  in  addressing 
the  mob  in  the  Temple  Court  and  in  plead- 
ing his  Master's  cause  before  Festus  and 
Agrippa,  so  is  it  when  he  writes  to  the  Cor- 
inthians— "I  am  not  meet  to  be  called  an 
Apostle,  because  I  persecuted  the  Church  of 
God:  but  by  the  grace  of  God  I  am  what  I 
am" — and  when  he  writes  to  Timothy — "A 
blasphemer  before,  a  persecutor  and  injuri- 
ous, I  obtained  mercy  ...  for  this  cause 
I  obtained  mercy,  that  in  me  first  Jesus 
Christ  might  show  forth  all  long-suffering." 
The  remembrance  of  this  great  change  vi- 
brates through  St.  Paul's  Epistles,  as  through 
all  the  latter  part  of  the  Acts.  In  both  we 
feel  that  we  have  the  living  personality  of 
the  man  and  the  intensity  of  an  ever-present 
conviction  to  bind  them  for  us  together. 

Another  general  remark  which  arises  out  of 
a  comparison  of  the  Acts  and  the  Epistles  is 
this,  that  the  same  character  of  the  Apostle 
Paul  comes  to  view  on  an  examination  of 
both.  The  proofs  may  be  somewhat  delicate 
and    minute;    but    they    are    very    conclusive. 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  119 

To  scatter  the  names  of  persons  and  places 
at  random  over  a  forged  history  or  over 
forged  letters,  would  be  a  very  hazardous 
proceeding:  for  detection  would  be  almost 
sure  to  result  on  comparison.  But  to  ex- 
hibit character  is  more  hazardous  still,  unless 
there  be  truth  in  both  the  history  and  the 
letters.  Character  reveals  itself  in  small  in- 
cidents and  indirect  notices.  Of  course  char- 
acter, and  the  indications  of  character,  can 
be  invented,  as  we  see  in  every  book  of  fic- 
tion. But  this,  I  think,  must  be  admitted  by 
all,  that  the  writer  of  the  Acts  does  not  set 
himself  deliberately  to  the  task  of  describing 
the  mental  and  moral  features  of  St.  Paul, 
and  that  St.  Paul's  purpose  in  his  Epistles  is 
not  to  give  a  picture  of  himself.  In  each  case 
whatever  comes  to  view  in  this  way  must  come 
to  view  without  design. 

The  discussion  which  has  preceded,  concern- 
ing the  three  accounts  of  St.  Paul's  Conver- 
sion, sets  clearly  before  us  that  he  was  a  man 
of  fine  tact  and  great  versatility;  and  this 
point    might    be    illustrated    by    various    pas- 


120  The  Evidential  Value 

sages  in  his  letters.  But  I  select  another 
aspect  of  character  for  our  present  purpose. 
Let  us  take  his  sympathetic  nature  under  con- 
sideration and  see  how  it  manifests  itself  alike 
in  the  history  and  in  the  letters. 

This  quality  of  sympathy  is  perhaps  best 
shown  in  small  matters,  and  very  particularly 
when  small  matters  are  in  close  contact  with 
great.  "  Use  a  little  wine  for  thy  stomach's 
sake  and  thine  often  infirmities."  To  write  this 
in  the  midst  of  injunctions  on  lofty  religious 
subjects  would  be  natural  to  some  men  and 
not  to  others.  It  was  evidently  natural  to  St. 
Paul.  We  observe  precisely  the  same  feeling 
and  the  same  combination  in  the  Epistle  to 
the  Philippians,  where  reference  is  made  to  the 
health  of  Epaphroditus.  "  Indeed  he  was  sick, 
nigh  unto  death:  but  God  had  mercy  on  him; 
and  not  on  him  only,  but  on  me  also,  lest  I 
should  have  sorrow  upon  sorrow :  "  and  pres- 
ently he  adds,  "Receive  him  in  the  Lord  with 
all  gladness;  and  hold  such  in  reputation:  be- 
cause for  the  work  of  the  Lord  he  was  nigh 
unto  death."     Something  of  the  same   kind  is 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  121 

observed  in  the  shipwreck.  During  the  height 
of  the  storm  he  had  said  these  noble  words: 
"  There  stood  by  me  this  night  the  angel  of 
God,  whose  I  am  and  whom  I  serve,  saying, 
Fear  not,  Paul;  .  .  .  .  lo,  God  hath  given 
thee  all  them  that  sail  with  thee:"  and  now, 
when  immediate  steps  are  to  be  taken  for  get- 
ting safe  to  land,  he  says,  "This  is  the  four- 
teenth day  that  ye  have  tarried  and  contin- 
ued fasting,  having  taken  nothing:  wherefore 
I  pray  you  to  take  some  meat,  for  this  is  for 
your  health:  for  there  shall  not  a  hair  fall 
from  the  head  of  any  of  you."  To  take  an- 
other instance,  what  a  kindly  human  sympa- 
thy he  shows  with  the  Lystrians,  when  he 
tells  them  how  "God  gave  them  rain  from 
heaven,  and  fruitful  seasons,  filling  their  heart 
with  food  and  gladness  !  "  By  no  mark,  per- 
haps, is  a  sympathetic  nature  more  surely  re- 
vealed than  in  an  earnest  craving  for  the  sym- 
pathy of  others.  This  too  is  conspicuous  in 
St.  Paul,  and  conspicuous  everywhere.  At 
Troas  "  he  had  no  rest  in  his  spirit,  because 
he    found    not    Titus    his    brother."     At    Appii 


122  The  Evidential  Value 


Forum  and  the  Three  Taverns,  "  when  he 
saw  the  brethren,  he  thanked  God  and  took 
courage."  The  former  of  these  sentences  is  in 
an  Epistle,  the  latter  is  in  the  Acts.  He  is 
constantly  referring  to  his  own  sufferings.  It 
was  ''because  of  sickness"  he  tells  the  Gala- 
tians,  that  he  staid  among  them  at  the  first. 
He  reminds  the  Macedonians  that  they  knew 
how  he  had  been  "shamefully  treated"  at 
Philippi.  He  reminds  the  Ephesian  elders, 
in  the  speech  of  Miletus,  how  from  the  day 
that  he  came  into  "Asia,"  he  had  been  among 
them  at  all  seasons  "  serving  the  Lord  with 
all  humility  of  mind,  and  with  many  tears." 
The  tone  of  this  speech  is  in  strict  harmony 
with  the  Epistles,  in  most  of  which,  as  Paley 
has  justly  remarked,  in  closing  his  observa- 
tions on  the  Epistle  to  Philemon,  are  "such 
pathetic  effusions,  drawn,  for  the  most  part, 
from  his  own  sufferings  and  situation." 

This  close  yet  delicate  correspondence  (and, 
let  me  add,  undesigned  correspondence)  be- 
tween the  Acts  and  Epistles,  in  the  matter  of 
St.  Paul's  character,  might  be  traced  in  other 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  123 

particulars:  and  I  will  ask  attention  to  two 
of  them,  before  I  turn  to  a  topic  of  a  differ- 
ent kind.  These  are  St.  Paul's  strict  consci- 
entiousness and  his  unswerving  tenacity  of  pur- 
pose. They  exhibit  to  us  the  sterner  sides 
of  that  varied  personality  which  in  its  many 
aspects,  yet  with  strict  consistency,  is  set  be- 
fore us  alike  in  the  Acts  and  the  Epistles. 

Speaking  before  Felix  St.  Paul  says:  "  Here- 
in do  I  exercise  myself,  to  have  always  a  con- 
science void  of  offence  toward  God  and  tow- 
ard men."  This  is  a  strong  statement.  Alike 
toward  God  and  toward  men  he  says  he  had 
striven  to  do  his  duty:  and  the  addition  of 
the  word  "always"  is  very  characteristic  of 
his  style.  He  says  too  that  he  made  this  a 
matter  of  self-discipline,  of  systematic  train- 
ing. He  uses  here  a  metaphor  from  the  Greek 
games.  With  this  should  be  compared  what 
he  says  before  the  Sanhedrim,  "  Brethren,  I 
have  lived  in  all  good  conscience  before  God 
until  this  day,"  and  what  he  says  to  Festus, 
"  I  thought  I  ought  to  do  many  things  con- 
trary   to    the    name    of    Jesus    of    Nazareth." 


124  The  Evidential  Value 

And  now,  if  we  turn  to  the  Epistles,  we 
find  him  saying  to  Timothy,  "  I  thank  God, 
whom  I  serve  from  my  forefathers  with  pure 
conscience,"  and  saying  to  the  Corinthians, 
"  My  rejoicing  is  this,  the  testimony  of  my 
conscience,  that  in  simplicity  and  godly  sin- 
cerity I  have  my  conversation  in  the  world " 
— and  again,  "  I  know  nothing  against  myself — 
nothing  is  on  my  conscience — ":  for  this  would 
be  a  most  correct  rendering  of  the  passage. 
And  all  this  is  illustrated,  not  only  by  his 
frequent  injunctions  to  the  sedulous  care  of 
conscience,  but  by  his  own  sensitive  honor 
with  regard  to  money  matters.  "  I  have  cov- 
eted no  man's  silver  or  gold."  This  he  says 
in  his  speech  to  the  elders  of  Ephesus.  "  If 
he  hath  wronged  thee,  or  oweth  thee  ought, 
put  that  on  my  account:  I,  Paul,  give  thee 
a  written  promise  with  my  own  hand:  I  will 
repay  thee."  This  he  says  in  the  letter  to 
Philemon. — And  these  are  only  instances  of 
the  proofs  of  St.  Paul's  strict  sense  of  honor 
and  duty,  which  could  easily  be  multiplied. 
That  tenacity  of  purpose,  for  which  he  is  em- 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  125 

inently  conspicuous,  strikes  us  the  more  forc- 
ibly, when  placed  side  by  side  with  the  sym- 
pathy and  tenderness,  of  which  I  have  spoken 
above.  Again  to  begin  with  instances  from 
the  Acts,  I  take  simply  two  from  the  return- 
journey  at  the  close  of  the  Third  Missionary 
Expedition.  The  scene  of  one  is  at  Miletus,  of 
the  other  at  Caesarea.  On  the  former  occasion 
he  anticipates  danger  and  difficulty:  a  cloud 
of  sad  foreboding  is  on  his  spirit;  but  he  says: 
"None  of  these  things  move  me,  neither  count 
I  my  life  dear  unto  myself,  so  that  I  might  fin- 
ish my  course  with  joy  and  the  ministry  which 
I  have  received  of  the  Lord  Jesus."  On  the 
second  occasion,  when  he  was  earnestly  "  be- 
sought not  to  go  up  to  Jerusalem  in  the  face 
of  clearly-predicted  dangers,  "then  Paul  an- 
swered, What  mean  ye  to  weep  and  to  break 
mine  heart  ?  for  I  am  ready  not  to  be  bound 
only,  but  also  to  die  at  Jerusalem  for  the 
name  of  the  Lord  Jesus."  The  possession  of 
mere  physical  courage  is  not  here  in  question. 
It  may  very  rightly  be  left  undecided  whether 
St.   Paul    did   possess    this   quality.     We  have 


126  TJie  Evidential  Value 

before  our  attention  a  much  higher  quality  of 
mind  and  heart.  It  is  the  rising  above  dis- 
couragement, the  persevering  in  spite  of  dif- 
ficulty, which  constitutes  St.  Paul  so  noble 
an  example  of  tenacity  of  purpose.  In  the 
passages  to  which  reference  has  been  made, 
especially  when  they  are  taken  in  combination 
with  the  contemporary  Epistles,  there  is  abun- 
dant proof  of  depression  of  spirits.  But  this 
depression  did  not  hinder  the  most  deter- 
mined perseverance.  And  what  we  see  here 
we  see  everywhere  throughout  the  record  of 
St.  Paul  in  the  Acts.  If  he  is  struck  down 
by  stoning  at  Lystra,  he  immediately  re- 
sumes work  elsewhere.  If  difficult  questions 
arise  at  Antioch,  he  goes  up  to  Jerusalem, 
that  they  be  thoroughly  discussed.  If  he  is 
hindered  from  preaching  the  Gospel  in  Bi- 
thynia,  he  proceeds  into  Europe.  There, 
when  persecuted  at  Thessalonica,  he  moves 
on  to  Berea.  He  never  rests.  He  is  ever 
entering  upon  new  ground,  ever  cheerfully  un- 
dertaking one  task  after  another,  while  ever 
devoted    to    one    purpose.     And    is    not    this 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  127 

manifestly  the  same  man  whom  we  see  in 
the  Epistles  ?  His  very  style  shows  the  iden- 
tity of  the  man.  There  is  no  need  for  quoting 
illustrative  instances  in  detail:  and  we  must 
now  pass  to  other  topics.  I  will  only  add, 
while  passing  from  the  present  topic,  that 
this  identity  of  character  in  the  two  sections 
of  the  New  Testament  which  relate  to  St. 
Paul  will  bear  a  very  close  scrutiny,  and  that 
this  fact,  considered  as  a  testimony  of  truth- 
fulness has  very  great  argumentative  force. 

I  turn  now  to  another  general  remark,  aris- 
ing out  of  a  comparison  of  the  Acts  with  the 
Epistles  of  St.  Paul  to  the  Corinthians,  to 
the  Galatians  and  the  Romans.  These  four 
Epistles  are,  even  by  the  most  destructive 
critics,  viewed  as  undoubtedly  St.  Paul's.  Let 
us  consider  what  this  means.  This  conces- 
sion is  really  momentous,  both  in  itself  and 
in  the  results  which  logically  follow  from  it. 
In  these  four  Epistles  we  have  Christianity. 
This  would  of  course  be  a  very  scanty  Bible, 
compared  with  that  which  we  have  the  hap- 
piness of  possessing.     Still  we  have  here  the 


128  The  Evidential  Value 

assertion  of  a  Divine  revelation,  with  copi- 
ous instructions  regarding  both  doctrine  and 
practice.  But  now  from  this  point  we  can 
logically  advance  further.  Having  this  Chris- 
tianity, we  acquire  confidence  in  God,  and  we 
believe  that  He  would  not  deceive  us.  This 
tends  to  spread  a  feeling  of  confidence  over 
the  rest  of  the  New  Testament.  What  are 
the  results  to  which  this  conviction  reason- 
ably leads  us  ? 

First  it  is  to  be  observed  that  there  are 
other  Epistles  claiming  to  be  St.  Paul's,  be- 
sides the  four.  If  we  take  the  four  as  our 
starting-point,  we  have  at  once  a  good  stand- 
ard for  comparison.  Looking  over  these  Epis- 
tles easily  and  naturally,  what  do  we  find  ? 
We  find  unequivocally  the  same  character  of 
the  man:  we  find  also  the  same  doctrine,  and 
not  merely  the  same  doctrine,  but  the  same 
manner  of  presenting  it.  I  confidently  say 
that  the  evidence  derived  from  this  mere  gen- 
eral comparison  is  so  overwhelmingly  strong 
that  it  outweighs  all  nibbling  objections  di- 
rected   against   points    of  detail.     This,    how- 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  129 

ever,   is    an    argument   altogether   irrespective 
of  the   Acts   of  the   Apostles. 

But  if  we  bring  the  Acts  into  combina- 
tion with  Epistles,  our  position  becomes  im- 
mediately firmer  and  more  commanding.  A 
fortress  already  impregnable  receives  a  still 
further  accession  oi  strength.  These  four 
Epistles  connect  themselves,  by  most  dis- 
tinct and  minute  evidence,  with  the  Third 
Missionary  Journey  of  St.  Paul,  as  recorded 
in  the  Acts.  Three  of  them  were  undoubt- 
edly written  during  that  journey,  and  the 
fourth  almost  certainly.  The  circumstances 
of  time  and  place  and  person  in  the  letters 
to  the  Romans  and  Corinthians  are  such  as 
to  furnish  a  proof  which  is  almost  mathemati- 
cal. The  case  of  the  letter  to  the  Galatians 
is  of  a  different  kind;  but,  for  my  own  part,  I 
think  the  evidence  in  this  instance  as  conclu- 
sive as  in  the  others.  In  these  documents 
then  we  obtain  a  solid  ground  under  our 
feet — a  central  table-land,  as  it  were,  from 
whence  we  can  survey  the  rest  of  the  Epis- 
tles.    And    presently    we    find    them    also    to 


130  The  Evidential  Value 

be  connected  by  close  links  with  the  Acts  of 
the  Apostles.  Thus  we  obtain,  by  this  kind 
of  comparison,  the  conviction  of  a  concatena- 
tion among  the  different  parts  of  the  New 
Testament,  which  leads  to  results  far  beyond 
the  starting-point  of  the  argument.  A  table- 
land is  not  an  island.  We  can  pass  from  it  to 
connecting  ridges.  We  can  pursue  streams 
and  survey  landscapes,  all  having  an  essential 
relation  to  the  structure  of  the  ground  on 
which  we  are  treading.  In  short,  if  we  pos- 
sess these  four  Epistles  as  undoubtedly  St. 
Paul's,  we  possess  much  more.  This  conclu- 
sion is  reached  by  a  comparison  of  the  Epis- 
tles generally  with  one  another:  but  it  is 
largely  aided  by  bringing  together  the  epis- 
tolary writings  with  St.  Luke's   history. 

And  one  other  thought  of  the  same  general 
character  may  conclude  this  lecture.  These 
epistolary  writings  are  in  relation  with  va- 
rious parts  of  Asia  Minor,  with  Northern 
and  Southern  Greece,  and  finally  with  Rome, 
the  centre  of  the  Empire.  In  them  we  see 
the  Gospel   on    its   great    missionary  progress, 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  131 

attacking  many  points  in  succession  and  al- 
most simultaneously.  For  example,  St.  Paul 
in  writing  to  the  Corinthians  mentions  the 
plans  which  he  had  adopted  in  Galatia:  his 
Epistle  to  Colossce  and  Philippi  are  sent  nearly 
at  the  same  time.  And  with  this  general  char- 
acteristic of  the  Paulinae  epistolary  writings 
the  Acts  are  entirely  correspondent.  The 
whole  air  and  feeling  derivable  from  the  one 
class  of  documents  is  similar  to  that  which 
we  derive  from  the  other.  In  St.  Luke's  nar- 
rative there  is  all  the  impression  of  a  world- 
wide enterprise:  and  this  impression  becomes 
stronger  and  more  life-like  at  the  end.  In 
comparing  the  Acts  with  the  Gospels,  refer- 
ence was  made  to  the  Hebrew  back-ground, 
which  was  then  necessarily  present  to  our 
thoughts.  I  spoke  of  the  Mount  of  Olives 
as  one  natural  place  of  transition.  But  the 
voyage  of  the  Apostle  from  Csesarea  to  Pute- 
olis  introduces  us  to  associations  of  a  totally 
different  kind.  Not  Judaea  and  the  Sea  of  Gal- 
ilee are  the  subjects  before  us  now,  but  the 
wide    Mediterranean    and    Europe    to    the    far 


132  The  Evidential  Value 

west.  The  mere  fact  that  Ca^sarea  was  on 
the  sea-coast  is  a  prophecy  of  the  future. 
We  are  vividly  conscious  of  this,  whether  we 
think  of  St.  Peter  or  of  St.  Paul  in  connec- 
tion with  that  place.  But  with  the  planting 
of  St.  Paul's  footsteps  upon  that  mole  at 
Puteoli,  large  fragments  of  which  still  re- 
main as  though  in  conscious  memory  of  the 
fact,  a  new  era  for  the  world  began.  Thence- 
forward the  onward  view  of  Christian  mis- 
sionary hope  was  without  limit.  That  often- 
quoted  line,  which  is  now,  I  believe,  inscribed 
on  the  portals  of  a  University  on  the  shores 
of  the  Pacific, 

"Westward  the  course  of  empire  holds  its  way," 

that  famous  line  receives  its  highest  mean- 
ing when  it  is  applied  to  the  progress  of  the 
Gospel :  and  all  this  progress  is  involved  in 
that  voyage  which  is  recorded  in  the  Acts. 
I  have  not  thought  it  necessary  to  enter 
upon  any  disquisitions  regarding  the  precise 
plan  and  purpose  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apos- 
tles;   the  reasons  why  its  particular   form   was 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  133 

given  to  it  and  its  particular  limitations  im- 
posed upon  it.  Two  things  indeed  are  very 
clear,  first  that  whereas  St.  Luke's  former  trea- 
tise describes  the  Lord's  working  on  earth, 
this  reveals  to  us  His  manner  of  working  from 
heaven,  and  secondly  that  only  select  speci- 
mens of  this  working  are  given  to  us  in  the 
Acts,  the  greater  part  being  left  in  obscurity. 
But  I  may  end  here  with  a  phrase  which  is 
really  full  of  meaning,  though  it  can  hardly 
be  accepted,  as  it  has  sometimes  been  pro- 
posed, for  a  complete  definition  of  the  purpose 
of  the  book.  The  phrase,  to  which  I  refer, 
is  simply  this — "  from  Jerusalem  to  Rome." 
That  sentence  of  St.  Paul  carried  with  it  the 
best  hopes  of  future  times  and  of  Western 
lands,  wrhen  he  said,  in  the  midst  of  his  Third 
Missionary  Journey — ''After  I  have  been  at 
Jerusalem,  I  must  also  see  Rome." 


LECTURE    IV. 

The  Usefulness  of  the  Book  for 
Instruction  and  Edification. 


LECTURE    IV. 

THE  USEFULNESS  OF  THE  BOOK  FOR  INSTRUC- 
TION AND  EDIFICA  TION 


T  TAVING  now  looked  back,  so  to  speak, 
A  from  the  Central  Table  Land  of  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  so  as  to  trace  the  con- 
nection of  this  book  with  the  Gospels,  and 
having  looked  forward  from  it  along  the  line 
of  the  Associated  Epistles,  we  may  now  in 
this  last  lecture  revert  to  such  general  views 
of  the  value  of  the  book,  as  occupied  our 
attention  in  the  first  lecture — with  this  dif- 
ference, however,  that  then  we  considered 
certain  features  of  it,  which  commended  it, 
almost  at  first  sight,  as  a  Divine  gift,  infi- 
nitely worthy  of  our  thankful  acceptance, — 
whereas  now  we  are  to  examine  closely  the 
benefits  which  the  Church  derives  from  it  in 
useful  instruction   and   spiritual   edification. 


138  The  Evidential  Value 

And  first,  I  suggest  that  we  take  notice  of 
its  connection  with  history,  its  exact  yet  un- 
premeditated correspondence  with  the  real 
facts  of  the  case,  as  regards  events  and  per- 
sons and  places,  in  the  time  to  which  its 
narrative  belongs.  I  am  disposed  to  lay  very 
much  stress  upon  this  characteristic  of  the 
book  as  a  ground  for  our  confidence.  I  think 
I  have  observed  that  very  scanty  attention 
is  paid  to  this  kind  of  evidence,  when  an 
endeavor  is  made  to  show  that  this  docu- 
ment is  a  comparatively  late  composition,  to 
be  almost  classed  with  the  Apocryphal  Acts. 
But  such  evidence  is  really  an  argument  of 
the  utmost  force,  especially  when  we  take 
account  not  only  of  the  historical  details 
with  which  we  come  in  contact  in  this  book, 
but  of  the  manner  of  this  contact.  For  the 
manner  shows  that  the  writer  was  contem- 
porary with  the  circumstances  which  he  hap- 
pens to  mention.  He  not  only  relates  the 
history,   but   he   personally  touched   it. 

It  has  been  said  by  the  present  Bishop  of 
Durham    that    ''no    ancient    work    affords    so 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  139 

many  tests  of  veracity;  for  no  other  has  such 
numerous  points  of  contact  in  all  directions 
with  contemporary  history,  politics,  and  ty- 
pography, whether  Jewish  or  Greek  or  Ro- 
man." This  is  a  strong-  statement,  but  it  is 
no  exaggeration;  and  it  is  important  that  we 
should  mark  it;  for  every  one  of  these  points 
of  contact  is  a  point  of  danger,  unless  there 
is  very  exact  truthfulness  and  an  easy  nat- 
uralness in  the  mode  of  their  appearance.  Of 
course  this  aspect  of  the  matter  before  us 
must  be  illustrated  by  a  selection  of  exam- 
ples ;  and  the  selected  examples  cannot  be  nu- 
merous. I  will  slightly  notice,  in  the  first  in- 
stance, four  places  and  four  persons;  the  places 
shall  be  Thessalonica  and  Ephesus,  Lasaea 
and  Phoenix.  The  persons  shall  be  Gamaliel, 
Herod  Agrippa  I.,  Gallio,  and  Bernice.  As 
regards  the  first  two  places,  let  it  be  ob- 
served that  political  geography,  if  it  is  true 
to  the  facts  of  the  period,  is  a  decisive  cor- 
roboration of  political  history.  The  second 
two  places  are  examples  of  very  recent  con- 
firmation by  discovery.     As  respects  the  per- 


140  The  Evidential  Value 

sons  I  have  named,  it  will  be  noted  that 
one  is  strictly  Jewish,  another  strictly  Im- 
perial and  Roman,  while  the  two  others  are 
members  of  the  Herodian  family.  In  the  Acts 
of  the  Apostles  we  are  on  the  line  of  inter- 
section between  Jewish  history  and  Roman 
history:  and  on  that  line  the  Herodian  fam- 
ily occupy  a  position  of  extraordinary  interest. 
In  St.  Luke's  notice  of  Thessalonica  there 
is  an  incidental  confirmatory  fact  so  remark- 
able that  it  is  almost  startling;  and  I  have 
often  wondered  that  more  heed  has  not  been 
given  to  it.  In  describing  the  tumult  caused 
there  by  the  Jews  in  the  matter  of  Paul  and 
Silas,  the  historian  uses  (quite  naturally,  and 
without  raising  any  question)  a  very  strange 
word  for  those  who  appear  in  our  Authorized 
Version  as  the  "rulers  of  the  city."  The 
word  is  politarchs.  It  is  not  found  in  any 
ancient  writer.  But  travellers  within  the  pres- 
ent century  have  seen  and  read  this  word 
politarchs  conspicuously  cut  on  stone  in  an- 
cient inscriptions  among  the  surviving  remains 
of  the  place.     No  evidence  could  possibly  be 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  141 

stronger;  and  the  peculiarity  of  the  word  en- 
hances its  value. 

As  regards  the  second  city  named  above, 
Bishop  Lightfoot  remarks  again,  "We  are 
justified  in  saying  that  ancient  literature  has 
preserved  no  picture  of  the  Ephesus  of  Impe- 
rial times  comparable  for  its  life-like  truthful- 
ness to  the  narrative  of  St.  Paul's  sojourn 
there  in  the  Acts."  Two  features  of  the 
case  which  come  forth  to  view  on  an  exam- 
ination of  a  profuse  number  of  inscriptions 
recently  discovered  and  arranged,  are  that 
the  worship  of  "the  Great  Goddess  Diana" 
was  the  predominant  enthusiasm  of  the  place, 
and  that  "the  Theatre,"  under  the  open  sky, 
was  the  customary  centre  of  excited  popular 
crowds.  These  inscriptions  too  (illustrated  by 
abundant  coins)  set  before  us,  in  remarkable 
combination,  the  title  of  the  "Town  Clerk," 
the  mention  of  the  "  lawful  assembly,"  the 
"chief  of  Asia,"  or  the  Asiarchs  who  pre- 
sided over  the  games,  and  the  fact  that  the 
province  of  "Asia"  was  governed  by  "dep- 
uties "   or   proconsuls.     That   remarkable   word 


142  The  Evidential  Value 

too,  neocoros,  rendered  "worshipper"  in  the 
English  version,  but  more  correctly  trans- 
lated "temple-warden"  or  "temple-sweeper," 
in  which  Ephesus  gloried,  comes  conspicu- 
ously before  our  eyes  in  these  ancient,  yet 
fresh  and  eloquent,  testimonies.  Even  em- 
perors boasted  that  they  were  (to  use  an 
equivalent  translation)  "  sacristans  "  of  the  fa- 
mous local  Divinity. 

I  now  come  to  the  mention  of  Lasaea.  It 
will  be  remembered  that  the  naming  of  this 
place  occurs  quite  casually,  so  to  speak,  in 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  Under  stress  of 
weather,  in  the  course  of  the  voyage  towards 
Rome,  the  Alexandrian  cornship,  which  had 
the  Apostle  on  board,  came  into  the  road- 
stead of  Fair  Havens,  "  nigh  whereunto  was  the 
city  of  Lasasa."  St.  Luke  was  probably  con- 
scious of  no  special  reason  for  mentioning  the 
place.  It  may  be  presumed  that  the  town  at- 
tracted the  attention  of  the  passengers  as  the 
ship  entered  the  roadstead,  and  that  inter- 
course with  it  was  frequent  afterwards  through 
the    bringing    of    supplies    to    the    people    on 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  143 

board.  Thus  the  naming  of  Lasaea  became  a 
natural  part  of  the  historian's  description. 
Certainly  he  did  not  deposit  this  local  name 
in  his  narrative  as  a  riddle  to  be  solved  after 
many  centuries  by  a  party  of  Scotch  travel- 
lers. The  point  of  interest  is  that  while  Fair 
Havens  is  perfectly  well  known  and  has  al- 
ways retained  the  same  designation,  Lasaea 
was  never  till  lately  identified,  except  by  very 
precarious  conjecture,  not  to  speak  of  tam- 
pering with  Greek  manuscripts,  for  the  sake 
of  procuring  identification.  A  quick  eye,  from 
the  deck  of  a  yacht,  some  twenty-five  years 
ago,  discerned  some  ruins  in  precisely  the 
right  spot;  and  on  landing,  a  question  asked 
from  a  shepherd  obtained  the  immediate  an- 
swer, "  The  place  is  called  Lasaea." 

With  the  identification  of  Phoenix  I  can 
connect,  if  I  may  be  allowed  to  say  so,  almost 
a  personal  interest.  It  is  at  the  moment  of 
leaving  Fair  Havens  for  the  westward  that 
this  harbor  of  Phoenix  is  named  in  St.  Luke's 
narrative.  It  might  be  said  on  a  superficial 
view   that    we    have    really   no    concern    with 


144  The  Evidential  Value 

this  harbor,  since  the  place  was  never  really 
reached.  But  clearly  there  was  such  a  har- 
bor to  the  west  of  Fair  Havens.  The  sailors 
knew  it  well,  and  they  described  it  as  shel- 
tered from  north-west  and  south-west  winds. 
The  question  is  whether  there  is  any  such 
anchorage,  in  the  right  place,  which  satisfies 
these  conditions.  For  a  long  period  it  was 
asserted  that  no  such  anchorage  was  known 
there.  I  have  myself  received  a  negative  re- 
ply, on  putting  the  inquiry  before  one  well 
acquainted  with  the  south  coast  of  Crete.  But 
on  the  arrival  at  the  English  Admiralty  of 
the  drawings  executed  by  the  surveying  offi- 
cers, I  found  at  once  what  I  was  sure  would 
be  proved  to  exist.  I  had  the  satisfaction  of 
first  publishing  the  information  that  there  is 
here  a  safe  harbor,  with  deep  water,  precisely 
sheltered  from  the  above  named  winds,  and 
with  the  name  Phineka  close  by;  and  thus 
the  discovery  of  this  place  is  to  be  added  to 
those  geographical  evidences  of  the  truth  of 
the  Bible,  which  have  been  accumulating  plen- 
tifully during  recent  years. 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  145 

From  places  let  us  now  pass  to  persons. 
There  are  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  two 
notices  of  Gamaliel,  quite  independent  of  one 
another,  quite  consistent  with  one  another, 
but  evidently  not  made  of  set  purpose  to 
correspond,  and  in  each  case  arising  quite 
naturally  out  of  the  narrative.  His  wise  coun- 
sel is  named  in  an  early  chapter,  during  the 
discussions  on  the  apprehension  of  Peter  and 
the  other  Apostles  for  teaching  heresy.  In 
a  later  chapter,  when  St.  Paul  is  giving  an 
account  of  his  early  days  at  Jerusalem,  he 
states  that  this  same  man  was  his  instructor 
in  Theology.  Now  the  great  Rabbi  Gamaliel 
is  a  well-known  personage  in  the  Talmudical 
annals  of  the  time.  The  chronology  agrees 
with  what  we  read  in  the  Acts ;  and  it  is 
equally  important  to  add  that  the  character 
of  Gamaliel  agrees  with  what  we  read  there  : 
for  he  was  not  only  a  Pharisee,  but  a  man  of 
candor  and  liberal  thought,  and  much  opposed 
to  the  bigotry  of  a  well-known  rival  school. 
Thus  our  book  is  found  to  connect  itself  in  an 
easy  and  unpremeditated  manner  with  the  life 
10 


146  The  Evidential  Value 

of  one  who  has  been  justly  termed  "a  hero  of 
Rabbinic  history." 

And  if  Gamaliel  correctly  links  this  book 
with  Rabbinic  history  so  does  King  Herod 
Agrippa  I.  link  it,  in  exact  particulars,  with 
the  Greek-writing  Jewish  annalist  Josephus. 
Agrippa's  desire  to  "  please  the  Jews "  is 
equally  manifest  in  both  authorities.  The  ac- 
counts of  his  death  at  Caesarea  agree  in  vari- 
ous details — in  the  pompous  display,  in  the 
brilliant  garments,  in  the  "set  day,"  in  the 
nature  of  the  sudden  and  fatal  disease,  while 
there  are  differences  in  the  manner  of  relating 
the  story,  which  absolutely  preclude  the  pos- 
sibility of  any  copying.  Moreover  the  dates 
are  in  harmony,  so  that  in  fact  the  death  of 
Herod  Agrippa  in  the  year  44  becomes  one 
of  the  pivots,  which  help  us  in  arranging 
correctly  the  chronology  of  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles. 

The  name  of  Gallio  supplies  to  us  a  link 
with  general  Roman  history  of  a  totally  dif- 
ferent kind.  The  title  given  to  this  governor 
of   Achaia    is    correct:    for    at    that    moment 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  147 

it  was  a  proconsular  province,  whereas  at 
a  date  very  slightly  different  this  would  not 
have  been  the  case.  Gallio  was  the  brother 
of  Seneca,  and  has  a  conspicuous  place  in 
that  philosopher's  letters,  besides  being  known 
to  us  through  other  writers.  In  this  litera- 
ture he  is  distinctly  connected  with  the 
province  of  Achaia;  and  moreover  his  char- 
acter is  described  to  us  as.  amiable  and  easy, 
such  as  would  readily  allow  any  difficult 
questions  to  pass  by.  This  is  in  harmony 
with  all  that  we  read  of  what  took  place 
at  Corinth  in  the  course  of  St.  Paul's  Second 
Missionary  Journey.  The  narrative  too  has 
all  the  air  of  a  contemporary  account,  with- 
out any  trace  of  the  exercise  of  ingenuity, 
and  is  very  unlike  a  part  of  a  romance  con- 
structed, a  century  later,  for  a  polemical  pur- 
pose. 

With  Bernice  we  return  to  the  Herodian 
family,  but  in  a  later  generation  than  that 
to  which  the  former  reference  belonged.  She 
was  the  daughter  of  the  first  Herod  Agrippa, 
and   the  sister  of  the   second,  in  whose   com- 


148  The  Evidential  Value 

pany  she  is  presented  to  us  by  the  writer  of 
the  Acts.  The  scene  comes  at  once  very 
vividly  into  our  memory;  and  we  mark  not 
only  the  pomp  and  parade  with  which  she 
and  Agrippa  came  with  Festus  into  the 
audience  hall,  to  hear  the  prisoner  Paul, 
but  also  the  fact  that  when  this  brilliant 
company  swept  out  of  the  chamber,  Bernice 
is  again  named,  as  though  she  were  the 
most  noteworthy  of  all  then  present.  If  from 
this  we  look  into  contemporary  history,  it  is 
startling  to  observe  how  she  appears  there. 
It  was  an  age  of  profligate  women:  and 
among  such  women  the  Herodian  Bernice 
was  notorious  through  the  empire.  It  is  not 
pleasant  to  write  of  such  a  subject.  Her  life 
reads,  as  has  been  truly  said,  "  like  a  horri- 
ble romance."  But  it  is  of  high  importance 
to  note  that  what  we  find  in  this  passage  of 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  is  in  harmony  with 
what  we  learn  from  historians  and  satirists, 
even  to  the  jewellery  which  Agrippa  gave 
to  this  shameless  woman. 

These    instances    have     been    very    lightly 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  149 

touched:  and  in  them  the  list  of  available 
instances  has  been  by  no  means  exhausted. 
Other  places  and  other  persons  might  have 
been  brought  forward  from  the  pages  of  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles  with  similar  results: 
and  the  temptation  to  linger  upon  this  part 
of  the  subject  is  so  great,  that  I  will  ask 
you  to  think,  in  this  connection,  of  yet  one 
more  place  and  one  more  person.  The  place 
shall  be  Cyprus  and  the  person  Felix. 

There  are  recent  circumstances,  both  in 
your  country  and  ours,  which  give  a  special 
animation  and  interest  to  the  mention  of 
Cyprus.  Whatever  may  be  the  import  and 
result  of  the  English  occupation  of  Cyprus, 
this  occupation  is  by  no  means  a  common- 
place fact.  Nor  is  it  a  common-place  fact 
that  General  de  Cesnola  has  brought  to  the 
New  World  very  ancient  and  very  precious 
memorials  of  the  religious  worship  of  that 
island.  But  in  the  midst  of  these  topics  of 
conversation  I  wonder  whether  it  has  ever 
occurred  to  my  hearers  that  this  island  is 
named  on  eight  distinct  occasions  in  the  Acts 


150  The  Evidential  Value 

of  the  Apostles,  and  in  each  case  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  suggest  very  useful  instruction. 
We  are  here  concerned  chiefly  with  the  evi- 
dential aspect  of  these  passages.  I  will  name 
simply  three  points  of  view  from  which  we 
should  regard  them.  First,  there  is  the  strict 
geographical  accuracy  with  which  the  island 
comes  before  us  in  all  these  varied  and  in- 
cidental notices.  Thus  it  is  conspicuously 
in  sight  from  the  coast  near  Antioch,  and 
it  was  naturally  first  visited  on  the  earliest 
missionary  expedition:  again  its  high  ground 
was  sighted  on  the  voyage  from  Rhodes  to 
Tyre,  at  the  close  of  the  Third  Missionary 
Expedition,  and  this  is  a  touch  in  the  nar- 
rative which  could  only  arise  from  truth;  and, 
once  more,  the  sailing  under  the  lee  of  Cy- 
prus, "  because  the  winds  were  contrary,"  is 
one  of  the  most  life-like  details  of  the  early 
part  of  that  voyage  to  Italy,  during  which 
the  narrator  was  St.  Paul's  companion.  Sec- 
ondly, we  know  from  good  authority  that  at 
this  period  the  Jews  were  numerous  in  Cy- 
prus.    (For  instance   Herod  the   Great  farmed 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  151 

copper-mines  in  the  island.)  This  fact  is  well 
illustrated  for  us  by  what  we  are  told  in  the 
Acts  concerning  Barnabas,  by  what  is  said 
of  Cypriot  Missionaries  in  the  account  of  the 
first  spread  of  the  Gospel  beyond  the  limits 
of  Palestine,  and  by  the  fact  that  there  were 
more  synagogues  than  one  at  Salanis,  the 
first  city  evangelized  on  the  first  general  mis- 
sion. Thirdly,  the  political  designation  of 
Sergius  Paulus  is  in  exact  correspondence 
with  the  circumstances  of  the  time,  and  has 
recently  received  an  unexpected  confirmation. 
It  has  been  long  known  that  Cyprus  was  at 
this  time,  like  Asia  and  Achaia,  a  procon- 
sular province,  though  earlier  commentators 
thought  it  was  still,  as  it  had  been  a  short 
time  before,  an  imperial  province;  so  that 
St.  Luke  may  be  said  to  have  narrowly  es- 
caped an  historical  error.  But,  moreover, 
one  of  the  inscriptions  so  carefully  given  in 
Cesnola's  Cyprus,  is  one  in  which  we  read 
the  words,  "  in  the  proconsulate  of  Paulus," 
There  seems  no  reason  for  doubting  that  this 
is  the   identical    Sergius    Paulus   of  the   Acts; 


152  The  Evidential  Value 

and  this  circumstance  arrests  our  attention 
the  more,  because  we  are  here  at  the  transi- 
tion-point of  the  Apostle's  own  change  of 
name. 

The  presence  of  Felix  in  the  history  of  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles  should  be  carefully  noted: 
for  his  giving  place  to  Festus  in  the  governor- 
ship of  the  province,  in  the  year  60,  furnishes 
us  with  our  second  pivot-for  adjusting  the  chro- 
nology of  the  book.  But  this  is  by  no  means 
.the  whole  of  what  requires  our  attention  in 
connection  with  Felix.  The  complexion  of 
the  social  and  moral  state  of  the  province, .as 
indicated  by  the  sacred  historian,  corresponds 
with  what  we  learn  from  other  sources  of  the 
utterly  corrupt  condition  of  the  priestly  party 
at  Jerusalem,  and  the  presence  of  banditti  and 
assassins  in  the  country.  Nor  must  we  omit  to 
mark  the  character  of  Felix  himself.  He  was 
mean,  corrupt,  and  oppressive.  He  had  once 
been  a  slave;  and  he  was  raised  by  court  fa- 
vor to  his  high  position,  in  which,  to  use  the 
strong  expression  of  the  great  Latin  annalist, 
he   "  exercised  the  power  of  a  king  with  the 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  153 

temper  of  a  slave."  We  thoroughly  under- 
stand what  is  said  by  St.  Luke  of  his  hope 
"  that  money  should  have  been  given  him  of 
Paul;"  and  the  circumstances  under  which  he 
was  recalled  from  his  province  by  Nero  afford  a 
very  good  reason  for  his  "  wishing  to  show  the 
Jews  a  pleasure  "  with  regard  to  this  prisoner. 
Drusilla  was  with  him  when  he  visited  St.  Paul 
in  prison;  and  his  marriage  with  this  sister  of 
Bernice  is  one  of  the  well-known  facts  of  con- 
temporaneous history.  There  is  no  stranger 
event  than  the  death  of  Drusilla,  with  the 
child  she  bore  to  Felix,  in  the  eruption  of 
Vesuvius  near  to  the  place  where  St.  Paul 
landed  on  his  arrival  in  Italy. 

In  these  notices  of  Cyprus  and  of  Felix,  the 
earlier  and  later  parts  of  the  Apostle's  voyage 
have  been  lightly  touched;  and  it  is  proper  to 
add  that  the  particulars  of  that  voyage  furnish 
to  us  some  of  the  most  important  evidences  of 
truthfulness  under  this  general  head  of  histor- 
ical accuracy.  These,  however,  must  be  left 
on  one  side.  I  will  simply  content  myself 
with   one   quotation   confirmatory  of  what   we 


154  The  Evidential  Value 

are  told  concerning  the  shipwreck  on  the  coast 
of  Malta — a  quotation  all  the  more  valuable, 
because  it  comes  from  a  civilian,  who  recently 
held  high  office  under  the  English  Govern- 
ment. The  name  of  Sir  William  Reid  is  well 
known  in  connection  with  "The  Law  of 
Storms;"  and  Mr.  Hermann  Merivale  says, 
in  his  account  of  a  visit  to  Malta: — "  Sir 
William  Reid  was  a  great  reader  of  Scripture, 
and  as  some  veterans  are  said  to  be  specially 
partial  to  the  warlike  books  of  Joshua  and 
Kings,  so  he,  for  his  part,  had  certainly  a  pre- 
dilection for  those  chapters  which  contain  the 
narrative  of  St.  Paul's  tempestuous  voyage. 
The  first  place  he  took  me  to  in  Malta  was 
the  well-known  little  bay,  or  rather  creek, 
known  by  the  name  of  the  Saint.  Under 
such  guidance  as  his,  the  absolute  and  un- 
mistakable identity  of  the  spot  with  that  de- 
scribed in  the  Acts  flashed  irresistibly  upon  the 
mind,  and  all  sceptical  notions  about  an  Adri- 
atic 'Melita'  were  dispelled  at  once.  There 
was  the  very  point  on  which  a  vessel,  driven 
along  the  northern  side  of  the  island  by  stress 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  155 


of  Euroclydon,  and  finding  the  precise  sound- 
ings specified  in  the  narrative,  would  natu- 
rally be  driven.  There  was  the  '  creek  with  a 
shore,'  almost  the  only  beach  of  sand  on  that 
rocky  line  of  coast.  There  was  the  'place 
where  two  seas,'  caused  by  the  protrusion  of 
an  insulated  rock  just  in  the  entrance  of  the 
bay,  '  meet '  close  to  the  '  shore '  aforesaid. 
Under  his  description,  every  incident  of  the 
tale  seemed  as  if  enacted  before  the  eye'.  We 
scarcely  needed,  to^  excite  our  imaginations, 
the  singular  experience  which  befell  a  friend 
of  mine  at  this  spot,  where  a  serpent  dropt 
from  a  fagot  of  brushwood,  which  he  had  cas- 
ually taken  up."  To  what  is  here  quoted  re- 
garding one  single  part  of  that  varied  narrative 
of  the  Voyage  and  Shipwreck,  I  will  only  add 
this  remark,  that  just  as  every  part  of  it  can  be 
illustrated  from  classical  writers,  so  does  this 
narrative  give  us  fuller  information  as  to  the 
ships  and  navigation  of  classical  times  than 
any  single  document  that  has  come  down  to 
us  from  antiquity. 

Passing  from  this  view  of  the   subject,   our 


156  The  Evidential  Value 

minds  are  led  by  an  easy  transition  to  set 
a  high  value  on  this  Book  of  the  Acts  in  its 
use  for  purposes  of  education.  It  follows  from 
what  has  been  said  above  that  its  educational 
usefulness  must  be  very  great,  both  because 
the  book  itself  is  a  part  of  general  history, 
and  because  it  brings  the  origin  of  the  Church 
into  the  easiest  combination  with  historical  in- 
struction. It  may  safely  be  predicted  that 
whatever  changes,  social  or  national,  take 
place  in  the  theory  or  practice  of  education, 
the  Greek  language  will  ever  hold  its  ground 
in  the  higher  linguistic  teaching,  and  that  the 
annals  of  the  Roman  Empire  will  ever  be  the 
magnificent  background  of  historical  teach- 
ing. Attempts  will  be  made  from  time  to 
time,  and  justifiable  and  successful  attempts, 
to  assert  for  other  things  a  high  place  in  edu- 
cating mankind :  but  the  power  of  the  Greek 
language  over  the  human  mind  will  revive 
again  and  again  and  will  survive :  so  too  it 
will  be  felt  that  there  is  a  greatness  in  the 
Roman  Empire  which  belongs  to  no  other 
historical   subject,  at   least   until  what   is   now 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  157 

the  future  becomes  the  past.  With  these  two 
thoughts  in  the  mind  we  see  the  fruitful  value 
of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  for  higher  edu- 
cation. It  has  placed  the  origin  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church,  within  the  high  sphere  of  the 
Greek  language,  in  dignified  connection  with 
Roman  history;  and  herein  we  are  bound  to 
see  and  adore  the  traces  of  Divine  providence. 
But  for  elementary  schools  likewise  this 
Book  of  the  Acts  has  the  utmost  value.  If 
the  young  and  the  ignorant  are  to  obtain 
some  intelligent  notions  of  classical  antiquity, 
of  the  spread  of  the  Greek  language,  of  the 
institutions  of  the  Roman  Empire,  there  is  no 
better  method  than  in  the  use  of  this  book ; 
while  certainly  it  is  an  advantage  that  such 
subjects  should  be  approached  in  so  religious 
and  healthy  an  atmosphere.  Then  let  us  call 
to  mind  the  diversified  interest  of  the  book 
— its  perpetual  variety  of  incident  and  place 
and  character — its  alternations  of  narratives 
and  speeches — its  capability  too  of  illustra- 
tion by  maps  and  charts  and  coins,  and  by 
views    of  'existing    remains,    from    the    great 


158  The  Evidential  Value 

stones  of  the  substructions  of  the  Temple-area 
at  Jerusalem,  above  which  Solomon's  Porch 
once  stood,  to  the  glory  which  still  crowns 
the  ruins  of  the  Acropolis  at  Athens,  and 
finally  to  the  fragments  of  the  pavement  of 
the  Appian  Way,  upon  which  St.  Paul's  feet 
undoubtedly  trod  when  his  long  adventurous 
voyage  was  over. 

One  of  the  most  curious  parts  of  this  sub- 
ject is  the  contact  of  the  History  of  the  Apos- 
tles with  Heathen  Mythology.  On  two  occa- 
sions, and  in  each  case  quite  naturally,  and 
in  a  manner  very  unlike  any  thought  that 
would  have  occurred  to  an  ingenious  contro- 
versial composer  after  the  event,  Greek  and 
Roman  divinities  come  before  us  in  the  nar- 
rative. It  was  a  common  belief  that  Jupiter 
and  Mercury  were  in  the  habit  of  visiting  the 
earth  in  companionship ;  and  Ovid  localizes 
an  occasion  of  this  kind  in  the  very  neighbor- 
hood of  Lycaonia.  Nothing  then  could  be 
more  true  to  the  nature  of  the  case,  than 
when  we  find  the  poor  untutored  heathens  of 
this  region  rushing  to  the  conclusion  that  they 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  159 

were  so  visited  again,  as  their  forefathers  had 
been,  when  Paul  and  Barnabas  came  among 
them :  and  an  additional  touch  of  reality  is 
given  to  the  story,  when  we  read  that  they 
identified  Paul  with  Mercury,  "because  he  was 
the  chief  speaker,"  while,  if  they  saw  some- 
thing majestic  and  benignant  in  the  aspect 
of  Barnabas,  this  is  quite  in  harmony  with 
what  we  know  of  his  character.  And  the  oth- 
er instance  arises  out  of  the  narrative  quite  as 
simply  and  unaffectedly,  though  in  a  manner 
quite  different.  Just  as  Luke  and  his  com- 
panions observed  on  entering  Fair  Havens  the 
proximity  of  the  town  of  Lasaea,  so,  when  they 
left  Malta  for  Rome,  and  were  taken  on  board 
another  great  Alexandrian  cornship,  they  could 
not  fail  to  have  their  attention  called  to  the 
fact  that  her  name  was  the  "  Castor  and  Pol- 
lux." The  figures  of  those  "great  twin  breth- 
ren," the  recognized  patrons  of  Greek  and  Ro- 
man sailors,  were  conspicuously  before  their 
eyes,  as  they  prepared  to  go  on  deck.  It  has 
pleased  God  that  such  features  should  be  char- 
acteristic of  the  Acts;  and  we  ought  to  be  by 


160  The  Evidential  Value 

no  means  reluctant  to  acknowledge  them  and 
to  feel  their  value,  when  we  address  ourselves 
to  the  instruction  of  the  ignorant  and  young. 

I  have  been  led  to  take  a  profound  interest 
in  the  Sunday-school  work  of  this  country; 
and  all  the  more  because  in  England  we  are 
about  to  hold  a  centenary  celebration  of  the 
beginning  of  an  institution  full  of  blessing 
to  all  who  speak  our  native  tongue;  and  I 
am  thankful  to  know  that  this  Book  of  the 
Acts,  on  either  side  of  the  Atlantic,  can  be 
made  charming  and  instructive  by  painstaking 
Sunday-school  teachers  to  multitudes  of  those 
who  will  manage  the  world  in  years  to  come. 

Next  let  us  regard  this  book  as  a  Missionary 
Manual.  This  is  an  aspect  of  its  usefulness, 
upon  which  the  highest  value  is  to  be  set; 
for  Mission-work  is  the  active  life  of  the 
Church.  This  again  is  a  view  of  our  subject 
to  which  there  will  be  an  immediate  response 
in  America.  One  of  the  happy  bonds  between 
your  country  and  ours,  and  of  the  cheerful 
hopes  for  the  future  of  the  world,  resides  in 
this    fact,   that    in    both    countries    during   the 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  161 

last  fifty  years  there  has  been  great  Missionary 
activity.  Speaking  indeed  on  this  subject  here, 
I  must  think  of  names  of  great  men,  not  be- 
longing to  our  communion,  such  as  Brainerd 
and  Eliot.  But  that  which  was  specially  in 
my  mind  was  what  I  observed  at  the  Gen- 
eral Convention  at  Baltimore  in  1871,  and 
what  was  doubtless  equally  conspicuous  at 
New  York  and  Boston  in  1874  and  1877,  the 
reports  of  Missionary  effort  and  success  in 
various  parts  of  the  world,  which  were  made 
day  by  day.  A  Church,  in  which  there  is 
this  living  interest  in  the  progress  of  the 
Gospel,  must  necessarily  be  strong. 

There  can  be  no  mistake  as  to  the  Mis- 
sionary spirit  which  pervades  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles.  The  whole  temper  of  the  book  is 
aggressive,  beneficently  aggressive.  Even  like 
the  sunrise  in  the  morning  it  insists  on  per- 
petual advance.  The  book  means  nothing  at 
all,  if  it  does  not  mean  this.  It  is  no  mere 
record  of  an  interesting  phase  of  religious 
thought,  or  of  the  useful  consequences  of  a 
benevolent  life;  but  it  is  charged  with  a  power 
11 


1 62  The  Evidential  Value 

which  is  to  affect  the  world,  and  to  move  on 
through  all  future  ages,  and  never  be  arrested 
till  limits  are  discovered  to  time  and  space. 
Moreover,  it  asserts  most  distinctly,  though 
in  no  unsympathetic  and  harsh  spirit,  that 
Christianity  is  not  one  only  of  many  religions 
possessing  equal  claims,  but  it  is  the  one  re- 
ligion destined  to  supersede  the  rest.  From 
this  source  then  we  can  draw,  ever  fresh  and 
vigorous,  that  Missionary  enthusiasm,  which 
is  the  strength  of  the  Church  and  the  hope 
of  mankind. 

Not  only,  however,  the  spirit  of  Missionary 
work,  but  the  right  methods  of  Missionary 
work  are  presented  to  us  in  this  book:  and  I 
will  now  venture  on  stating  a  few  of  those 
principles  of  Christian  Missions,  which  come 
to  view  on  a  careful  study  of  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles,  and  which  ought  to  receive  atten- 
tion, because  they  are  of  binding  force  for 
all  time. 

First  mark  that  the  progress  of  the  Gospel 
is  made  to  depend  on  personal  effort.  Living 
religion  in  the  heart  of  one   man  kindles   liv- 


of  tfie  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  163 

ing  religion  in  the  heart  of  other  men.  "  The 
man  of  Ethiopia,"  in  returning  from  Jerusa- 
lem along  the  "desert"  road  near  Gaza,  and 
"seated  in  his  chariot,"  is  reading  "the  pro- 
phet Esaias";  and  it  is  said  from  heaven 
to  Philip :  "  Go  near  and  join  thyself  to 
this  chariot."  The  consequence  was  that  the 
"Ethiopian  went  on  his  way  rejoicing";  and 
what  results  followed  as  to  Christianity  in 
Africa  we  cannot  calculate.  Apollos,  when 
his  spirit  had  been  quickened,  and  his  mind 
instructed  by  Aquila  and  Priscilla,  passed  over 
from  Ephesus  to  Achaia,  and  "there  helped 
them  much  which  had  believed  through  grace." 
Under  the  same  head  of  personal  exertion 
must  be  classed  all  that  we  read  concerning 
St.  Peter  in  the  early  part  of  the  Acts,  and 
the  progressive  spread  of  the  Gospel,  along  the 
narrow  coast-region  of  Judaea,  and  in  the  later 
part  concerning  St.  Paul  and  the  great  expe- 
ditions which  connect  his  name  with  Thessa- 
lonica,  Ephesus,  Corinth,  and  Rome. 

Still  we  should  observe,  in  the  second  place, 
that  this  missionary  effort  is  not  detached  ef- 


164  The  Evidential  Value 

fort.  On  the  contrary,  co-operation  is  a  most 
distinct  feature  of  the  labor  on  behalf  of  the 
Gospel  described  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apos- 
tles. Peter  and  John  are  sent  together  to 
Samaria.  Barnabas  takes  a  journey  to  Tar- 
sus to  fetch  Paul  to  Antioch.  On  the  First 
Missionary  Expedition  they  go  together  to 
Cyprus,  and  John  Mark  with  them.  On  the 
Second  Missionary  Expedition,  after  there  has 
been  a  dispute  and  separation,  Paul  takes  Si- 
las with  him  into  the  interior  of  Asia  Minor, 
and,  finding  Timothy  there,  him  also  ''would 
he  have  to  go  forth  with  him."  On  the  Third 
Expedition  he  is  at  Ephesus,  and  purposes 
to  go  onward  to  Macedonia.  "So,"  it  is  said, 
"he  sent  into  Macedonia,"  to  precede  him, 
"two  of  them  that  ministered  unto  him,  Tim- 
otheus  and  Erastus."  We  know,  of  course, 
that  if  we  were  to  allow  ourselves  to  wander 
into  the  region  of  the  Epistles,  this  great 
principle  and  method  could  be  illustrated 
profusely  from    thence. 

Another  point   to   be    carefully  observed   in 
the  history  of  Mission-work,  as  related  in  the 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  165 

Acts,  is  that  the  Gospel  spreads  by  the  use 
of  the  living  voice.  "  Faith  cometh  by  hear- 
ing; and  hearing  by  the  Word  of  God."  This 
great  principle  is  illustrated  in  the  recorded 
history,  alike  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul.  It 
is  probable  indeed  that,  as  a  preacher,  the 
former  was  far  greater  than  the  latter.  Our 
overlooking  of  this  fact  is  perhaps  part  of 
that  injustice  towards  St.  Peter,  of  which  I 
spoke  in  a  former  lecture.  Certainly  the  ef- 
fect of  his  sermons,  in  the  multitude  of  con- 
versions which  followed,  is  such  as  we  do  not 
see  elsewhere.  But  in  the  life  of  the  other 
Apostle,  on  the  most  varied  occasions,  at  An- 
tioch  in  Pisidia,  on  the  Areopagus  at  Athens, 
in  the  audience  chamber  at  Caesarea,  the  same 
great  principle,  enunciated  by  himself,  is  abun- 
dantly exemplified. 

At  the  same  time  another  conspicuous  fact  of 
missionary  experience,  as  set  before  us  in  the 
Acts,  is  to  be  carefully  combined  with  that 
which  has  just  been  named.  This  is  the 
appointed  preparation  for  success  in  the  wide 
diffusion    of    the     Greek    Translation    of    the 


1 66  The  Evidential  Value 

Ancient  Scriptures.  "  Moses  of  old  time  hath 
in  every  city  them  that  preach  him,  being 
read  in  the  synagogues  every  Sabbath  Day." 
I  will  quote  here  some  words  used  by  the 
present  Bishop  of  Lincoln  in  his  Introduction 
to  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  Through  the 
Septuagint  Version,  he  says,  "Even  Hea- 
thenism itself  had  been  silently  leavened  by 
the  diffusion  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures.  Their 
venerable  antiquity,  their  noble  simplicity, 
their  pure  morality,  had  won  for  them  the 
affections  of  many  wise  and  noble  minds, 
which  were  wearied  and  disgusted  with  the 
jarring  contradictions  and  the  licentious  prof- 
ligacy of  Paganism,  and  recognized  in  the 
religion  of  the  Old  Testament  a  divine  echo 
responsive  to  the  voices  of  Nature,  Reason, 
and  Conscience  speaking  in  their  own  hearts." 
Is  it  not  evident  that  the  same  principle  of 
preparatory  mission-work  is  applicable  to  the 
diffusion  of  the  New  Testament  among  Hea- 
then nations  now,  and  that  results  in  the 
Far  East  through  Christian  literature  may 
reasonably   be    expected,    corresponding   with 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  167 

what  we  find  to  have  taken  place  of  old  in 
connection  with  the  synagogues  of  the  dis- 
persed Jews  ? 

Another  great  feature  of  early  Missionary 
work,  especially  as  regards  St.  Paul,  is  to  be 
found  in  the  fact  that  he  always  aimed  at 
great  cities.  The  period  in  which  he  lived 
was  an  age  of  great  cities.  The  place  where 
the  Christian  Church  first  received  its  dis- 
tinctive name,  and  where  the  first  great 
success  was  achieved  outside  Judaea,  was 
Antioch,  which  ranked  third  among  the  cities 
of  the  Empire.  On  the  shores  of  the  ^Egean 
were  three  great  mercantile  emporiums.  On 
the  Second  Missionary  Journey  the  prolonged 
residences,  of  which  we  have  a  careful  ac- 
count, were  at  two  of  them — Thessalonica  and 
Corinth.  It  was  doubtless  the  wish  to  work 
for  Christ  in  Ephesus,  the  third,  which  made 
St.  Paul  desire  "to  preach  the  Gospel  in  Asia." 
On  the  Last  Missionary  Journey  the  wish 
was  at  length  fulfilled.  Finally  we  see  how 
the  yearning  of  his  heart  tended  towards 
Rome,    and    how    some    of    the    most    signal 


1 68  The  Evidential  Value 

benefits  which  he  rendered  to  the  world  were 
done  in  that  metropolis,  partly  though  the 
Epistle  to  Rome,  partly  through  the  Epistles 
written  from  thence.  And  once  more  is  there 
not  a  close  parallel  here  with  our  own  times  ? 
We,  too,  live  in  an  age  of  great  cities.  Our 
part  is  boldly  to  imitate  the  Apostolic  ex- 
ample. Such  places  as  New  York,  Chicago, 
and  San  Francisco,  are  the  colossal  modern 
counterparts  of  the  cities  of  the  Roman 
Empire. 

One  other  particular  may  close  this  enu- 
meration of  Missionary  principles,  as  presented 
to  us  in  the  Book  of  the  Acts.  St.  Paul  was 
careful  to  establish  a  local  fixed  ministry  in 
every  spot  where  the  Gospel  had  been  planted. 
At  the  close  of  the  First  Journey,  when  they 
were  preparing  to  return  to  Antioch,  and  were 
revisiting  their  old  ground,  "they  ordained 
them  elders  in  every  city."  A  clear  proof  of 
the  same  habit  of  procedure  is  te  be  seen  in 
the  sending  from  Miletus  to  Ephesus  and 
"calling  for  the  elders  of  the  Church";  and 
long  afterwards  decisive  corroboration  of  this 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  169 

practice  is  found  in  one  of  the  latest  Epistles. 
"  For  this  cause,  "  he  says  to  Titus,  "  I  left 
thee  in  Crete,  that  thou  shouldest  ordain  eld- 
ers in  every  city." 

Very  closely  connected  with  this  subject 
is  one  which  very  seriously  and  happily  af- 
fects us  all,  whether  we  are  directly  engaged 
in  Mission-work  or  not.  The  Book  of  the 
Acts  is  a  series  of  Lessons  in  Providence. 
How  manifestly,  in  the  course  of  its  story, 
do  we  see  temporary  evils  overruled  for  per- 
manent good  !  Persecution  becomes  the  op- 
portunity for  wider  diffusion  of  the  Gospel. 
Flagrant  sins,  as  in  the  case  of  Ananias  and 
Sapphira  and  Simon  Magus,  result  in  solemn 
admonitions  recorded  for  the  benefit  of  every 
age.  And,  to  pass  that  which  was  more  par- 
ticularly in  my  thoughts,  we  see  throughout 
how  the  circumstances  of  life  are  a  discipline 
of  dependence  and  an  incitement  to  prayer. 

Disengaging  the  movements  of  St.  Paul 
from  the  question  of  missionary  progress,  and 
viewing  him  personally,  I  think  we  may  re- 
gard  the   circumstances  of  his   life  as  a  prov- 


170  The  Evidential  Value 

idential  training,  and  as  thus  furnishing  both 
admonition  and  encouragement  to  ourselves. 
He  meets  with  friends,  just  when  he  needs 
their  companionship  and  assistance,  as,  for 
instance,  Timotheus  at  Lystra  and  Aquila 
and  Priscilla  at  Corinth.  He  is  not  permitted 
to  preach  the  Gospel  in  the  provinces  of  Asia 
and  Bithynia:  but  this  results  in  a  prosperous 
entry  on  the  evangelization  of  Europe.  He 
embarks  cheerfully  and  hopefully  on  this  new 
enterprise;  and  presently  he  is  hindered  and 
persecuted.  On  his  return  to  Palestine  from 
his  Last  Missionary  Expedition  he  "is  kept 
two  years  in  prison.  This  is  very  mysteri- 
ous. We  feel  as  if  the  world  could  not  spare 
"two  years"  from  such  a  life.  And  yet  it 
may  be  that  this  discipline  was  most  salu- 
tary to  himself,  as  certainly  it  is  very  use- 
fully admonitory  to  us.  He  has  long  desired 
to  go  to  Rome.  He  does  go  thither:  but 
certainly  in  a  manner  most  unexpected  to 
himself.  On  his  way  thither  he  passes  through 
the  utmost  danger,  and  he  is  shipwrecked. 
Still  his  life  is  saved. 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  171 

We  might  pursue  this  train  of  thought  into 
many  particulars.  Even  the  smaller  incidents 
are  suggestive.  Look  for  instance  at  that 
boat  which  is  towing  behind,  while  "  the  south 
wind  is  blowing  softly,"  and  the  sailors  sup- 
pose they  have  "  obtained  their  purpose"  of 
reaching  the  harbor  of  Phoenix.  They  little 
expected  the  furious  gale,  which  suddenly 
drove  them  out  of  their  course:  and  under 
the  lee  of  Clauda  "they  had  much  work  to 
come  by  the  boat."  Still  they  did  succeed 
in  taking  it  on  board.  Finally,  after  a  fort- 
night, when  the  ship  in  the  night,  on  the 
coast  of  Malta,  depends  simply  on  her  four 
anchors,  and  is  in  danger  of  foundering,  the 
sailors  lower  the  boat  and  attempt  to  leave 
the  ship.  If  they  had  succeeded,  all  the  pas- 
sengers would  have  been  drowned.  But  the 
Apostle  had  a  friend  on  board,  and  he  acted 
on  the  emergency  with  consummate  judgment. 
"  He  said  to  the  Centurion  and  to  the  sol- 
diers, Except  these  abide  in  the  ship,  ye 
cannot  be  saved.  Then  the  soldiers  cut  off 
the   ropes    of  the   boat   and    let   her   fall   off." 


172  The  Evidential  Value 

In  the  end  all  were  saved  without  the  boat. 
A  profitable  sermon  might  be  preached  on 
the  incidents  connected  with  this  boat.  They 
furnish  to  us  a  parable  of  the  mysterious  prov- 
idence, under  which  our  human   life   is   spent. 

And  to  revert  for  a  moment  to  Peter,  with 
the  same  thought  in  our  minds.  How  re- 
markably he  was  guided,  in  the  case  of  Cor- 
nelius, to  unexpected  results !  On  the  whole, 
omitting  the  miraculous  (and  we  must  omit 
the  miraculous),  we  gain  from  this  book  in- 
struction in  the  reality  of  providential  guid- 
ance, most  comforting,  most  encouraging  for 
all  our  doings,  and  especially  for  our  efforts 
in  religious  work. 

There  is  a  religious  lesson  of  another  kind, 
which,  I  think,  ought  not  to  be  altogether 
omitted  from  this  brief  summary  of  the  ad- 
vantages derivable  from  this  book.  I  will 
venture  to  term  it  the  lesson  of  Judicious 
Compromise  in  Religion,  though  I  am  aware 
that  such  a  phrase  might  easily  be  misun- 
derstood. I  shall  best  explain  what  I  mean 
by   an    enumeration    of   instances.     Peter    and 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  173 


John  go  to  the  Temple  "  at  the  hour  of 
prayer."  They  do  not  break  rudely  and  sud- 
denly with  the  old  institutions  of  their  fa- 
thers. The  Apostles  show  great  frankness  in 
listening  to  Peter's  argument  regarding  Cor- 
nelius, and  in  accepting  the  result.  "Then 
hath  God  unto  the  Gentiles  given  repentance 
unto  life."  The  attitude,  again,  of  James  at 
the  Council  is  full  of  candor.  He  accepts 
well-attested  truth  and  lays  aside  all  preju- 
dice. The  utmost  consideration  and  forbear- 
ance are  observable  in  the  letter  issued  by 
the  Council,  in  which  rules  of  diet,  for  the 
sake  of  the  Jewish  converts  and  of  the  Jews, 
are  elevated  for  the  time  to  the  dignity  of 
moral  principles.  Once  more,  Paul  does  not 
object  to  bind  himself  by  a  Nazaritic  vow, 
or  to  make  common  cause  with  those  who 
are  so  bound.  All  these  things  give  to  the 
spirit  of  the  book  a  decided  character  of  for- 
bearance, which  in  the  midst  of  ardent  mis- 
sionary zeal,  must  have  largely  contributed, 
under  God,  to  the  early  success  of  Christianity, 
while  it  is  a  perpetual  example  to  ourselves. 


174  The  Evidential  Value 

If  our  limits  of  space  made  it  possible,  I 
might  have  desired  to  dwell  with  some  care 
on  two  features  of  the  Book  of  the  Acts, 
which  certainly  fall  under  the  general  de- 
scription of  profitable  edification  and  instruc- 
tion. These  are  its  exhibition  of  single  un- 
ceasing devotion  to  God  and  to  the  cause 
of  Christ,  and  its  unity  of  religious  doctrine 
with  that  which  we  find  in  the  other  books 
of  the  New  Testament.  They  are  two  very 
different  subjects;  but  each  of  them  is  of  ob- 
vious importance,  when  this  history  is  treated 
evidentially. 

As  to  the  first  point,  we  have  this  advan- 
tage, that  a  very  few  words  will  suffice  to 
make  the  fact  evident.  From  the  beginning1 
to  the  end  of  the  book  we  trace,  in  those 
who  are  engaged  in  founding  Christianity,  a 
straightforward,  unswerving,  onward  move- 
ment, in  obedience  to  a  direct  commission; 
and  it  is  of  the  greater  consequence  to  mark 
this,  because  of  what  has  been  said  above 
regarding  religious  compromise.  "  We  can- 
not   but    speak    the    things    which    we    have 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  175 

seen  and  heard;  we  ought  to  obey  God  rath- 
er than  men,"  are  the  words  of  Peter  and  the 
other  Apostles,  when  confronted  by  the  un- 
believing Jews;  "and  daily  in  the  Temple, 
and  in  every  house,  they  ceased  not  to  teach 
and  preach  Jesus  Christ ; "  and  as  with  the 
earlier  Apostles,  so  with  St.  Paul  upon  a 
wider  field.  To  the  elders  of  Ephesus,  while 
he  says,  on  the  one  hand,  of  the  past:  "I 
have  taught  you  publicly  and  from  house  to 
house;  I  have  not  shunned  to  declare  unto  you 
all  the  counsel  of  God;  by  the  space  of  three 
years  I  ceased  not  to  warn  every  one  day 
and  night  with  tears," — he  says  of  the  future, 
which  to  his  clear  apprehension  is  full  of 
threatening  danger:  "None  of  these  things 
move  me,  neither  count  I  my  life  dear  unto 
myself,  so  that  I  might  finish  my  course  with 
joy,  and  the  ministry,  which  I  have  received  of 
the  Lord  Jesus."  Presently  afterwards,  land- 
ing at  Caesarea,  and  met  by  the  distinct  pro- 
phecies of  coming  evil,  he  exclaims:  "What 
mean  ye  to  weep  and  to  break  mine  heart  ? 
for   I    am   ready,   not    to    be   bound   only,   but 


iy6  The  Evidential  Value 

also  to  die  for  the  Lord  Jesus;"  and  to  quote 
one  example  more  of  this  unflinching  devo- 
tion of  heart  in  the  Apostle  Paul,  as  set  be- 
fore us  in  the  Acts,  it  is  most  striking  to 
hear  ki  the  midst  of  the  storm,  when  he  can 
speak  only  a  few  words,  and  when  his  en- 
couragement to  the  terrified  crew  would  in 
fact  have  been  complete  without  the  paren- 
thesis, saying  of  himself  ''whose  I  am  and 
whom  I  serve."  No  sermon  was  ever  so  short 
or  so  well  fitted  to  its  occasion.  It  is,  how- 
ever, as  a  proof  of  unflinching  devotion  to  his 
Master,  that  I  here  bring  forward  this  most 
remarkable  utterance. 

The  allusion,  too,  to  the  Doctrine  of  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles  must  be  made  very 
briefly;  but  a  very  brief  allusion  will  suffice 
to  justify  what  has  been  said  of  its  consis- 
tency with  the  Doctrine  of  other  parts  of 
the  New  Testament.  Nothing  in  the  teach- 
ing of  St.  Peter  or  St.  Paul,  as  here  recorded, 
can  be  pointed  out  which  is  not  in  harmony 
with  the  teaching  of  their  Epistles.  Even 
the   statement  of  this  fact  in  its  general  form 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  177 

is  not  without  its  value  in  its  relation  to  the 
trustworthiness  of  the  Acts.  But  two  pas- 
sages of  a  decisive  character  may  be  adduced 
with  advantage,  each  connected  with  a  very 
marked  occasion,  and  each  setting  forth  the 
doctrine  of  free  justification  through  faith. 
St.  Peter  said  at  the  Apostolic  Council,  "  God 
put  no  difference  between  us  and  the  Gentiles, 
purifying  their  hearts  by  faith.  We  believe 
that  through  the  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
we  shall  be  saved  even  as  they."  We  seem 
here  to  have  the  mature  teaching  of  St. 
Peter's  First  Epistle.  St.  Paul  said,  in  his 
great  sermon  at  Antioch  in  Pisidia,  "Through 
this  man  is  preached  unto  you  the  forgive- 
ness of  sins;  and  by  Him  all  that  believe 
are  justified  from  all  things,  from  which  ye 
could  not  be  justified  by  the  law  of  Moses." 
Have  we  not  here  a  summary  of  the  whole 
course  of  thought  in  the  Epistles  to  the 
Romans  and  the  Galatians  ? 

I  have  reserved  to  the  last  the  topic  which 
appears  to  me  of  pre-eminent  importance.     The 

constant  mention  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  con- 
12 


lyS  The  Evide7itial  Value 

stant  recognition  of  the  supremacy  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  is  more  characteristic  of  this  book,  as 
regards  religious  teaching,  than  anything  else. 
So  prominent,  so  distinguishing  a  fact  is  this, 
that  the  book  has  been  beautifully  and  truly 
termed  "  the  Gospel  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  The 
one  most  remarkable  feature  in  the  doctrine 
of  the  book  is  the  prominence  given  in  it  to 
the  work  and  offices  of  the  Third  Person  of  the 
Holy  Trinity.  The  history  of  the  early  days 
of  the  Christian  Church,  as  told  in  these 
Acts,  is,  so  to  speak,  a  specimen  of  the  way 
in  which  the  Lord  Jesus  will  continue  "to 
do  and  to  teach "  from  His  Royal  Throne  in 
Heaven,  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  sent 
down  according  to  His  own  solemn  words  to 
His  disciples  the  night  before  the  Cross.  "If 
I  depart,  I  will  send  the  Comforter  to  you. 
When  He  is  come,  He  will  guide  you  into 
all  truth." 

As  to  the  facts  of  the  case,  I  believe  that 
a  simple  condensed  enumeration  of  them  will 
be  more  forcible  than  any  comment.  And 
this   enumeration   may  be  given  in  two  ways. 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  179 

First,  there  are  the  broad  general  features  of 
the  case,  the  instances  where  the  mention 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  evidently  meant  to  have 
a  commanding  position  at  critical  parts  of  the 
narrative.  But,  also,  there  are  many  minor 
examples,  if  we  may  so  call  them,  where  the 
same  Power  is  shown  to  be  consciously  felt, 
so  that  the  whole  tissue  of  the  narrative  is 
pervaded  by  this  influence.  In  combining 
these  two  aspects  of  the  question  we  per- 
ceive how  great  is  the  importance  which  it 
rightfully  assumes. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  Acts  Whitsuntide 
breaks  on  us  like  a  sunrise.  From  the  outset 
everything  works  rapidly  up  to  this  point.  The 
Lord,  after  His  resurrection,  had,  "  through 
the  Holy  Ghost,"  given  to  His  Apostles  com- 
mandments:  they  were  to  be  "  baptized  with 
the  Holy  Ghost " ;  to  receive  power  after  that 
the  "  Holy  Ghost  had  come  upon  them." 
Then  came  Pentecost  with  all  its  wonder  and 
efficacy.  But,  in  the  next  place,  there  was  a 
second  Pentecost,  a  second  Whitsuntide,  at 
Caesarea,  in  the  case  of  Cornelius.     The  whole 


i8o  The  Evidential  Value 

account  of  his  conversion  is  pervaded  by  the 
mention  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  was  the  voice 
of  "the  Spirit,"  as  St.  Luke  tells  us,  and  as 
St.  Peter  relates  afterwards,  which  determined 
his  departure  with  the  messengers.  While  Pe- 
ter was  speaking  to  Cornelius  and  his  friends, 
"  the  Holy  Ghost  fell  on  all  them  which  heard 
the  Word,"  so  that  those  who  had  come  with 
Peter  were  astonished,  "  because  that  on  the 
Gentiles  also  was  poured  the  gift  of  the  Holy 
Ghost."  Then  follows  the  question  of  Pe- 
ter, "  Can  any  forbid  the  water,  that  these 
should  not  be  baptized,  which  have  received 
the  Holy  Ghost  as  well  as  we?"  And  we 
should  mark  how  he  urges  this  point  when 
he  is  justifying  his  conduct  before  the  apos- 
tles and  brethren.  "As  I  began  to  speak, 
the  Holy  Ghost  fell  on  them,  as  on  us  at  the 
beginning :  then  remembered  I  the  words  of 
the  Lord,  how  that  He  said,  John  indeed  bap- 
tized with  water,  but  ye  shall  be  baptized  with 
the  Holy  Ghost" — and  how  He  said  long  after- 
wards, "Ye  know  how  that  a  good  while  ago 
God  made  choice  among  us  that  the  Gentiles 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 


by  my  mouth  should  hear  the  word  of  the  Gos- 
pel and  believe :  and  God,  which  knoweth  the 
hearts,  bare  them  witness,  giving  to  them  the 
Holy  Ghost,  even  as  He  did  unto  us."  And 
to  turn  to  a  third  point,  which  may  well  be 
said  to  be  of  critical  moment,  the  same  power 
of  the  Second  Person  of  the  Trinity  is  named 
as  presiding  over  the  earliest  formation  of 
the  Christian  Ministry.  The  Seven  Deacons 
chosen  to  assist  the  Apostles  are,  by  author- 
ity, selected  as  "men  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost"; 
and  Stephen,  the  most  prominent  of  the  sev- 
en, is  especially  named  as  "  full  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,"  while  of  the  elders  at  Ephesus  St. 
Paul  expressly  says  that  "the  Holy  Ghost 
had  made  them  overseers  "  over  the  Christian 
flock.  So  also  when  the  first  Apostolic  Mis- 
sionaries were  sent  forth,  the  personal  direc- 
tion of  the  Spirit  is  made  as  prominent  as  pos- 
sible :  "  The  Holy  Ghost  said,  separate  me 
Barnabas  and  Saul  for  the  work  unto  which 
I  have  called  them  :  so  they,  being  sent  forth 
by  the  Holy  Ghost,  departed  unto  Seleucia, 
and  from  thence  unto  Cyprus."     So  also  when 


1 82  The  Evidential  Value 

a  solemn  council  is  held  to  determine  a  mo- 
mentous point  of  doctrine  and  practice,  the 
decision  is  issued  in  this  form,  "it  seemed 
good  to  the  Holy  Ghost  and  to  us."  And  to 
complete  this  enumeration  of  what  may  be 
termed  the  larger  and  more  commanding  feat- 
ures of  the  case,  we  may  pass  to  the  preach- 
ing of  St.  Paul  on  his  arrival  in  Rome.  Just 
as  the  accusation  brought  against  the  High 
Priest  and  Council  by  Stephen,  in  his  splen- 
did apology  for  the  faith,  was  "ye  do  always 
resist  the  Holy  Ghost,"  so  is  St.  Paul,  at  the 
end  of  the  book,  represented  as  saying  to 
those  who  believed  not:  "Well  spake  the  Holy 
Ghost  by  Esaias  the  prophet,  saying,  'Hearing 
ye  shall  hear  and  shall  not  understand,  and 
seeing  ye  shall  see  and  not  perceive.'"  So  do 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  bear  testimony  to 
the  Spirit  "  who  spake  by  the  prophets,"  bind 
together  for  us  the  Old  Testament  and  the 
New,  assure  us  of  the  fulfilment  of  the  Sa- 
viour's promise,  and  introduce  Christianity  to 
the  world  as  the  dispensation  of  the  Holy 
Ghost. 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  183 

And  when  we  turn  to  the  incidental  allusions, 
if  indeed  we  may  correctly  draw  this  distinc- 
tion, we  find  them  to  be  such  as  these.  The 
sin  of  Ananias  and  Sapphira  is  described  as 
"a  lie  to  the  Holy  Ghost,"  as  an  agreement 
"to  tempt  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord."  The  sin 
of  Simon  at  Samaria  was  that  he  thought  that 
the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost  might  be  "pur- 
chased with  money."  When  Philip  met  the 
eunuch  on  the  desert  road  near  Gaza,  it  was 
the  Spirit  who  said  unto  him,  "go  near;" 
and  when  this  particular  mission  was  ended, 
it  was  the  Spirit  who  "caught  him  away,  so 
that  he  was  found  at  Azotus,"  and  thence 
continued  his  mission  through  the  cities  to 
Caesarea.  When  Ananias  at  Damascus  was 
sent  to  Saul  in  his  blindness,  he  declared 
that  he  was  sent  that  Saul  might  be  "filled 
with  the  Holy  Ghost."  When  the  churches 
throughout  Judea  and  Galilee  and  Samaria 
"  had  rest,"  it  is  added  with  great  beauty,  that 
they  were  "edified  and  walking  in  the  fear 
of  the  Lord  and  in  the  comfort  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,   were   multiplied."     When    the    prophet 


184  The  Evidential  Value 

Agabus  in  the  early  part  of  the  history  fore- 
told famine,  and  when  in  the  later  part  he 
foretold  St.  Paul's  imprisonment,  in  each  case 
it  is  said  that  he  did  this  "by  the  Spirit." 
When  St.  Paul  earnestly  desired  to  preach  the 
Gospel  in  a  particular  district,  it  is  expressly 
said  that  he  was  "  forbidden  by  the  Holy 
Ghost,"  that  the  "  Spirit  suffered  him  not." 
When  at  Miletus  he  prophetically,  though 
dimly,  saw  impending  danger,  his  own  lan- 
guage was:  "I  go  bound  in  the  Spirit  to  Je- 
rusalem, not  knowing  the  things  that  shall 
befall  me  there,  save  that  the  Holy  Ghost 
witnesseth  in  every  city,  saying  that  bonds 
and  afflictions  abide  me."  Thus  does  the  guid- 
ance, comfort,  control,  and  discipline  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  appear  at  every  point  of  the  Acts 
of  the  Apostles,  even  as  they  are  a  present 
Divine  power  in  every  separate  Christian  life. 
The  supremacy  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  this  is 
the  point  to  which  I  am  always  led  upon  a 
careful  study  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles — 
the  supremacy  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  our 
system  of  doctrine  and  in  the  individual  life. 


of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  185 

This,  too,  is  the  inner  meaning  of  the  har- 
mony of  this  book  with  the  Gospels  on  the 
one  hand  and  the  Epistles  on  the  other.  If 
there  is  one  point  above  all  others  that  I  de- 
sire to  express  strongly  at  the  close  of  the 
present  course  of  lectures  it  is  this. 

And  let  me  be  permitted  to  say  one  word 
more  regarding  this  culminating  part  of  the 
teaching  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  the 
supremacy  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  It  is  by  keep- 
ing this  great  doctrine  in  its  prominent  po- 
sition that  we  keep  all  other  religious  truths 
in  their  right  places.  It  is  of  the  utmost 
moment  that  we  should  not  only  lay  hold 
of  the  right  elements  of  truth,  but  that  we 
should  apprehend  them  in  their  due  relation 
and  proportion  to  one  another.  It  is  through 
forgetfulness  of  this  great  principle,  through 
distortion,  through  exaggeration  in  one  place, 
through  attenuating  in  another,  rather  than 
through  positive  error,  that  our  Christianity 
ceases  to  be  what  it  ought  to  be,  that  mis- 
understandings arise  among  us,  that  we  be- 
come separated  from  each   other.     This  great 


1 86  Evidential  Value  of  the  Acts. 

central  book  of  the  New  Testament  sets  forth 
that  great  central  truth  which  keeps  all  others 
in  due  subordination.  The  Acts  of  the  Apos- 
tles, with  their  other  blessings  to  the  Church 
of  Christ,  come  to  us  with  the  serious  ad- 
monition that,  fixing  our  eye  on  this  cardi- 
nal point,  "if  we  prophesy,"  we  take  heed  to 
prophesy  "  according  to  the  proportion  of  the 
faith." 


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